Icelandic name

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Icelandic names differ from most Western family name systems by being patronymic (and sometimes matronymic) in that they reflect the immediate father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage.

Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian states of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Icelanders, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used in all of Scandinavia. The Icelandic system does not use family names or surnames. A person's last name indicates the first name of the subject's father (or mother in some cases), that is, it is a patronymic (or matronymic). Some family names do exist in Iceland. Most of them are inherited from parents of foreign origin, but some are adopted. One notable Icelander who has an inherited family name is football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen. Prior to 1925, it was legal to adopt new family names; a notable Icelander who did so was the Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness. Since then, one can't adopt a family name unless one has the "right" to do so due to inheritance.

First names that have not been used in Iceland before have to be approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee prior to being used.^[1] They are accepted or rejected based on whether or not they can be easily incorporated into the Icelandic language. First, they must contain only letters found in the Icelandic alphabet. Second, names must be able to be declined. Unlike English, names are actually declined (conjugated) based on where they are in a sentence. In order for the set rules to still apply, names have to follow this pattern.

1 Typical Icelandic naming
2 Matronymic naming as a choice
3 Cultural ramifications
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Typical Icelandic naming

For example, a man named Jón Stefánsson has a son named Fjalar. Fjalar's last name will not be Stefánsson like his father's; it will become Jónsson, literally indicating that Fjalar is the son of Jón (Jóns + son).

The same practice is used for daughters. Jón Stefánsson's daughter Katrín would not have the last name Stefánsson; she would have the name Jónsdóttir. Again, the last name literally means "Jón's daughter" (Jóns + dóttir).

In some cases, an individual's last name is derived from his/her parent's middle name instead of first name. For example, if Jón is the son of Hjálmar Arnar Vilhjálmsson he may either be named Jón Hjálmarsson (Jón son of Hjálmar) or Jón Arnarsson (Jón son of Arnar). The reason for this may be that the parent prefers to be called by his/her middle name instead of first, which is fairly common, or that the parent's middle name seems to fit the child's first name better.

In some cases where two people in the same social circle bear the same first name and the same father's name they are socially distinguished by their paternal grandfather's name. E.g. Jón Þórsson Bjarnarsonar (Jón, son of Þór, son of Bjarni) and Jón Þórsson Hallssonar (Jón, son of Þór, son of Hallur). This method is not common (as middle names are more commonly used), but such tracing of lineages can easily be seen in the Sagas.

[edit] Matronymic naming as a choice

The vast majority of Iceland last names carry the name of the father, but in some cases the mother's name is used, for various reasons. Sometimes either the child or legal parent wishes to end social ties with the father. Some women use it as a social statement, and yet others simply choose it as a matter of style and nothing more. In all of these cases, the convention is entirely the same. Fjalar, the son of Bryndís, will have the full name of Fjalar Bryndísarson (literally meaning "the son of Bryndís"). A notable Icelander with a matronymic name is football player Heiðar Helguson.

[edit] Cultural ramifications

Members of other cultures often find it unusual that Icelanders formally address others by their first name. For example, former prime minister Halldór Ásgrímsson would not be addressed as Ásgrímsson or Mr. Ásgrímsson by another Icelander; he would either be addressed only by his first name (or first and second if he had one), or his full name. The cultural meaning of an Icelander's last name is not that it is a part of one's name, but a short description of who one is. Halldór is Ásgrímsson — a son of Ásgrímur. Legally, it is a part of his name. Culturally, it is a definition of who begat whom, even if that definition is seemingly vague.

Another good example of the formal mode of address is the Icelandic singer and actress Björk. Björk is commonly mistaken for an artist's name or an artist's expression, such as "Sting". However, Björk is simply Björk Guðmundsdóttir's first name, as any Icelander would address her, whether formally or casually.

One consequence of this is that in Iceland, directories of people's names, such as the phone directory, are alphabetised by given name, not by surname.

As a result, in a four-person family there might be four different last names: the married couple Jón (Stefánsson) and Bryndís (Atladóttir), and their children Fjalar (Jónsson) and Katrín (Jónsdóttir).

This fact has, at least in the past, been known to cause problems for Icelandic tourists in socially conservative countries, such as Italy, where married couples were refused a hotel room together because of different last names.

Icelandic couples or families that emigrate abroad might take up the male's last name as a surname for the whole family. Some find this cultural adaptation very uncomfortable as changes to names are quite uncommon in Iceland. Similarly many Icelanders feel strongly about not being called by their last name as if it were a surname.^{[citation needed]}