Gudrun is a feminine given name of Old Norse origin derived from guð or goð, meaning "god"; and rūn, meaning "rune", or "secret lore".

Gudrun, the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish as well as the English and German form of the name, was revived and came into greater use in the latter half of the 19th century[2] The name is earliest attested in a runestone as kuþrun.

[3][4] Gudrun was also in regular use for girls in Germany from the late 19th century through the 1960s, a time period when romantic German nationalism was in vogue and the names of idealized heroines such as Gudrun from Germanic heroic legend became more popular.

Gudrun appeared as Gutrune in Götterdämmerung, the last of Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen.

[5] The name is also in occasional use in the Anglosphere, perhaps inspired by use of the name in the Wagner opera and for its use by English author D.H. Lawrence for a character in his 1920 novel Women in Love.