To say that Scandinavians are older than Germans makes about as much sense as saying Scandinavians are older than Norwegians. Technically true, because Scandinavian peoples existed before either of those countries, but irrelevant. Germanic people originated in central western Europe and were named by the Romans. Scandinavians are Germanic people (not Germans) who migrated north, as opposed to the Finno-Ugric people who are Uralic and migrated to a similar area from the east. The Anglo-Saxons and Franks were also Germanic peoples who travelled west and south respectively, but today they are English and French, not German. So, yes, Scandinavians are Germanic. No one is calling them German.

Thank you, Destiny. I am glad this article proved to be helpful.

Hello David. Scandinavian, as a linguistic and cultural term, is more or less equivalent to North Germanic.

Hello Gierolf. Thanks for your comment. While I agree with what you write, I’d rather add that the etymology of the word Germani (in this form it first appeared in Latin) is not clear. There are two theories that say it was a Celtic word meaning either ‘neighbors’ or ‘noisy’. Others believe it was a Germanic word meaning ‘spear men’.

Germanic Peoples

If you’re going to study actual history and language, why not use the actual technical terms? If you want terms that suit the masses, then go listen to pop music or something.

The Scandinavians are the Northern Branch of the Germanic peoples. And the Goths are not the forefathers of Scandinavians. They were the Eastern Branch of the Germanic peoples and their language is now extinct. So yes, you are Germanic. And no, you aren’t older than Germans. The Northern Branch is equally descended from the proto-Germanics as the Eastern and Western Branches. Germanic does not mean German.