Scandinavian family name etymology
![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Heritable family names were generally adopted rather late within Scandinavia. Nobility were the first to take names that would be passed on from one generation to the next. Later, clergy, artisans and merchants in cities took heritable names. Family names (surnames) were still used together with primary patronyms (father's name plus an affix denoting relationship), which were used by all social classes. This meant that most families until modern times did not have surnames. Scandinavian patronyms were generally derived from the father's given name with the addition of a suffix meaning 'son' or 'daughter' or by occupation like Møller - ( Miller ) naming tradition remained commonly used throughout the Scandinavian countries during the time of surname formation.[1] Forms of the patronymic suffixes include: -son, -sen, -fen, -søn, -ler, -zen, -zon/zoon, and -sson .
Denmark
The most common Danish family name surnames are patronymic and end in -sen; for example Rasmussen, originally meaning "son of Rasmus" (Rasmus' son). Descendants of Danish or Norwegian immigrants to the United States frequently have similar names ending in the suffix "-sen" or have changed the spelling to "-son". Approximately one-third of the Danish population bear one of the ten most common surnames. More than two-thirds have a patronym ending in -sen in their full name. Many of these patronymics are, however, very rare, local or testimony of unusual descent, e.g. Heilesen from Northern Jutland, Holdensen and Boldsen from the former Duchy of Schleswig or Common etymological classes of surnames are occupational (e.g., Møller - miller, Schmidt - smith, and Fisker - fisher, for example names taken after a village or farmstead inhabited by ancestors.
Other higher class people took heritable surnames during the following centuries, clergy often Latinized names (e.g. Pontoppidan made from Broby) and artisans often Germanized names. Naming acts applying to all citizens were issued 1771 (for the Duchy of Schleswig only) and in 1828. The rural population only reluctantly gave up the traditional primary patronyms. Several naming acts replaced the first; in 1856, 1904, 1961, 1981, 2005. The result of the first act was that most people took a patronymic surname as their heritable family name, with the overwhelming dominance of a few surnames as a consequence. Later acts have attempted to motivate people to change to surnames that would allow safer identification of individuals.
In the table, the top surnames in Denmark are listed as of 1971,[2] 2012[3] and 2022.[4] In 2016, longtime most popular name Jensen was overtaken by Nielsen.[5] The general tendency over the past century has been to give up the commonest names and adopt less frequently-used ones.
Rank | Surname | Number of bearers 1971 | Number of bearers 2012 | Number of bearers 2022[6] | Type | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nielsen | 349,126 | 264,159 | 236,397 | patronymic | son of Niels |
2 | Jensen | 368,631 | 264,824 | 233,713 | patronymic | son of Jens |
3 | Hansen | 297,937 | 220,956 | 197,548 | patronymic | son of Hans |
4 | Andersen | 188,359 | 161,379 | 150,161 | patronymic | son of Anders |
5 | Pedersen | 203,426 | 166,417 | 149,643 | patronymic | son of Peder |
6 | Christensen | 159,943 | 121,147 | 111,816 | patronymic | son of Christen |
7 | Larsen | 148,214 | 118,144 | 107,721 | patronymic | son of Lars |
8 | Sørensen | 139,111 | 113,207 | 102,848 | patronymic | son of Søren |
9 | Rasmussen | 117,355 | 96,250 | 88,351 | patronymic | son of Rasmus |
10 | Jørgensen | 110,132 | 89,846 | 82,285 | patronymic | son of Jørgen |
11 | Petersen | 130,236 | 81,250 | 72,757 | patronymic | son of Peter |
12 | Madsen | 76,441 | 65,222 | 60,676 | patronymic | son of Mads |
13 | Kristensen | 58,990 | 61,274 | 57,758 | patronymic | son of Kristen |
14 | Olsen | 65,194 | 49,091 | 44,629 | patronymic | son of Ole |
15 | Thomsen | 40,180 | 39,473 | 38,244 | patronymic | son of Thomas |
16 | Christiansen | 45,984 | 37,493 | 35,143 | patronymic | son of Christian |
17 | Poulsen | 36,544 | 32,526 | 30,545 | patronymic | son of Poul |
18 | Johansen | 36,470 | 31,517 | 29,866 | patronymic | son of Johan |
19 | Møller | 31,645 | 30,321 | 29,481 | occupational | miller |
20 | Mortensen | not in top 20 | not in top 20 | 28,124 | patronymic | son of Morten |
Norway
The most common Norwegian surnames were originally patronymic, commonly ending with the suffixes "-ssen", "-sson", "-sdatter", "-sdotter" which is the genitive s plus the word sen or son for son or datter or dotter for daughter. The genitive s was often dropped; compare Hanssen and Hansen. In 1923, it was ordered by law that each family should have a single, hereditary last name. Most families took a patronymic name, but some adopted a toponym (name of a geographical location) as their surname, typically the name of a farm.[7] Today, the patronymic names are increasingly being left for the toponyms; 22.4% of the Norwegian population had a "-sen"-name in 2009, while the share was down to 18.4% for the newborns of 2009.[8]
Almost all Norwegian toponymic surnames derive from farm names, and these farms were frequently named after the geographical features of the farm's location. Many farm names and thus surnames derive from just one word describing the most obvious or distinguishing geographical feature of their location (such as "Dal", meaning "valley"), while others again are compounds of several words describing the farm's location or geographical features (such as "Solberg", meaning "sunny mountain/hill"). Example of surnames deriving from farm names include "Bakke"/"Bakken" (hill or rise), "Berg"/"Berge" (mountain or hill), "Dahl"/"Dal" (valley), "Haugen" or "Haugan" (hill or mound), "Lie" (side of a valley), "Moen" (meadow), "Rud" (clearing), "Vik" (bay or inlet), and "Hagen" (pasture).[9] As Norwegian orthography has undergone substantial standardisation and change since surnames were made mandatory, toponymic surnames are commonly spelt in archaic ways. For example, the surnames "Wiik" and "Wiig" are common variant spellings of "Vik" with well over a thousand people bearing each surname,[10] and "Viik", "Vig", "Viig" and "Wig" (among others) are additional, less common variants of the same name. Similar archaic variants exist for many other Norwegian toponymic surnames.[11]
The following table lists the 20 most common Norwegian surnames as of 2013:[12]
Rank | Surname | Number of bearers 2012 | Type | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Hansen | 54,433 | patronymic | son of Hans |
2 | Johansen | 51,136 | patronymic | son of Johan |
3 | Olsen | 50,655 | patronymic | son of Ole |
4 | Larsen | 38,510 | patronymic | son of Lars |
5 | Andersen | 37,630 | patronymic | son of Anders |
6 | Pedersen | 35,688 | patronymic | son of Peder |
7 | Nilsen | 35,435 | patronymic | son of Nils |
8 | Kristiansen | 23,910 | patronymic | son of Kristian |
9 | Jensen | 23,318 | patronymic | son of Jens |
10 | Karlsen | 21,677 | patronymic | son of Karl |
11 | Johnsen | 20,964 | patronymic | son of John |
12 | Pettersen | 20,466 | patronymic | son of Petter |
13 | Eriksen | 19,351 | patronymic | son of Erik |
14 | Berg | 18,228 | landscape | mountain or hill |
15 | Haugen | 14,467 | landscape | hill or mound |
16 | Hagen | 14,202 | landscape | enclosed pasture |
17 | Johannessen | 13,539 | patronymic | son of Johannes |
18 | Andreassen | 12,218 | patronymic | son of Andreas |
19 | Jacobsen | 12,016 | patronymic | son of Jacob |
20 | Halvorsen | 11,614 | patronymic | son of Halvor |
Sweden
The most common surnames in Sweden are originally patronymic. Family names ending with the suffix "sson" are the most common names in Sweden. In 1901, the Names Adoption Act was passed, which abolished the patronymic practice. From 1901, everyone had to have a family name that was passed down to the next generation.
Many family names consist of items from nature, for example Lind/Lindberg (linden/lime + mountain), Berg/Bergkvist (mountain/mountain + twig), Alström/Ahlström (alder + stream), or Dahl/Dahlin (valley). Sometimes the first part of such a composite name refers to the family's place of origin e.g. the Strindberg family originating from Strinne; the second part being just ornamental. Families also frequently have military-oriented names such as Skarpsvärd (sharp sword), Sköld (shield) and Stolt (proud). Those names were originally assigned to soldiers under the military allotment system in effect from the 16th century. As in Denmark, the clergy Latinized their names up to about the 18th century, e.g. Linnaeus. Due to the greater diversity of these names each specific name is less common than most patronymic names.
The listing of 20 most commonly Swedish surnames as of December 31, 2012. Different spellings are included in every name but the name is presented by the most common spelling:[13]
Rank | Surname | Number of bearers 2012 | Type | Etymology |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andersson | 251,621 | patronymic | son of Anders |
2 | Johansson | 251,495 | patronymic | son of Johan |
3 | Karlsson | 223,151 | patronymic | son of Karl |
4 | Nilsson | 171,360 | patronymic | son of Nils |
5 | Eriksson | 147,514 | patronymic | son of Erik |
6 | Larsson | 124,686 | patronymic | son of Lars |
7 | Olsson | 114,280 | patronymic | son of Ola / Olof |
8 | Persson | 107,911 | patronymic | son of Per |
9 | Svensson | 101,834 | patronymic | son of Sven |
10 | Gustafsson | 97,536 | patronymic | son of Gustaf |
11 | Pettersson | 96,011 | patronymic | son of Petter |
12 | Jonsson | 73,869 | patronymic | son of Jon / Jonas |
13 | Jansson | 50,170 | patronymic | son of Jan |
14 | Hansson | 43,926 | patronymic | son of Hans |
15 | Bengtsson | 34,302 | patronymic | son of Bengt |
16 | Jönsson | 32,249 | patronymic | son of Jöns |
17 | Lindberg | 27,533 | landscape | linden + mountain |
18 | Jakobsson | 26,793 | patronymic | son of Jakob |
19 | Magnusson | 26,562 | patronymic | son of Magnus |
20 | Olofsson | 26,424 | patronymic | son of Olof |
See also
References
- ^ MyDanishRoots.com
- ^ University of Copenhagen, Unit for Name Research
- ^ "Navne - Danmarks Statistik". Dst.dk. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- ^ "Navne i hele befolkningen". dst.dk (in Danish). Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- ^ "Navne i hele befolkningen". dst.dk (in Danish). Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- ^ "Navne i hele befolkningen". dst.dk (in Danish). Statistics Denmark. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
- ^ Norwegian Naming Patterns
- ^ Name statistics for 2009 (Statistics Norway, SSB)
- ^ Norwegian-American Surnames (Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume XII: Page 1
- ^ "Navn". Statistisk sentralbyrå. Statistisk sentralbyrå. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
- ^ "Historisk utvikling av etternavn og stedsnavn". Slekt og data. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
- ^ Statistics Norway
- ^ Swedish Name Statistics