From Norse myth, Embla was the first woman, and the name is often linked with elm or vine imagery.
Embla is one of the oldest named women in recorded Northern European mythology. In the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda — the medieval Icelandic texts that preserve Norse cosmology — Embla and her companion Ask (Ash) were the first human beings. The gods Odin, Hœnir, and Lóðurr fashioned Embla from an elm tree found on the seashore, breathing into her gifts of breath, warmth, color, and spirit.
Her name almost certainly derives from the Old Norse word for elm, *almr*, through a Proto-Germanic root, though some scholars propose a connection to a word meaning 'busy' or 'industrious.' For centuries Embla remained largely confined to the realm of myth, a founding figure in Scandinavian cultural memory akin to Eve in the Abrahamic tradition — but wilder, more elemental, shaped from wood and wind rather than clay. Scandinavian Romantic nationalism of the nineteenth century revived interest in Norse mythology broadly, and Embla appeared in poetry, painting, and opera as a symbol of primordial Nordic womanhood.
In the twenty-first century, Embla has undergone a quiet renaissance, particularly in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, where it consistently appears in top-hundred girl name lists. Beyond Scandinavia, it appeals to parents seeking mythological depth without the over-familiarity of names like Freya or Astrid. Embla carries the oldest kind of story: the one about where we all came from.