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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,'datter'.
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 |
Norwegian surnames were originally patronymic and similar to the surnames used in modern Iceland, consisting of the father's name and one of the suffixes "-sen"/"-son" (son) or "-datter"/"-dotter" (daughter), depending on the person's gender. Unlike modern surnames (family names), they were specific to a person and were not transferred to a person's children. Before 1500, hereditary surnames (family names) were almost unheard except among a few, select elite families. For a long time after that, they were inconsistently used and only found in the upper strata (often urban) of society. As late as 1801, only 2.2% of the rural population in Western Norway had a hereditary surname. Starting in the 16th century, use of hereditary surnames slowly grew in the cities. Around a fourth of the population of Bergen had hereditary surnames by the end of the 17th century, a number which had grown to about 40% by the early 19th century. After this, the use of hereditary surnames in the cities accelerated—by 1865, the vast majority of citizens of Trondheim had hereditary surnames, and by the beginning of the 20th century most of the urban population in Norway had hereditary surnames, although non-hereditary patronymics were often used in addition to the family name. The 19th century saw large-scale migration from rural to urban areas, and migrating families often adopted a formerly non-hereditary patronymic as their family name during the move. Around the turn of the century, the common use of hereditary family names became common in rural areas too. In rural areas, toponymic surnames—usually derived from the name of a farm—were a common alternative to adopting a patronymic as the hereditary family name. Finally, a law passed in 1923 ordered that all newborn children should be assigned a hereditary family name at birth, but did not force people who still did not have a family name to adopt one. [7]
Most 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). [8] 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, [9] and "Viik", "Vig", "Viig" and "Wig" (among others) are additional, less common variants of the same name. Similar archaic variants exist of many other Norwegian toponymic surnames. [7] There are also Norwegian surnames derived from the word land (Norwegian : country) such as Torland and Kverneland. [10]
Today, surnames derived from patronymics are decreasing in popularity in favour of surnames derived from toponyms. In 2009, 22.4% of the Norwegian population had a surname with the suffix "-sen", while among the newborns of 2009 the share was down to 18.4%. [11] The decline of patronymic-derived surnames is not a new phenomenon—the early 20th century saw a similar shift in the frequency of surnames, caused by demographic changes due to successive waves of migration from rural to urban areas. For example, the proportion of the population of Bergen bearing a patronymic-derived family name decreased by half in the forty years after 1900. [7] 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 |
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 |
Surname conventions and laws vary around the world. This article gives an overview of surnames around the world.
A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic.
A surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person.
Icelandic names are names used by people from Iceland. Icelandic surnames are different from most other naming systems in the modern Western world in that they are patronymic or occasionally matronymic: they indicate the father of the child and not the historic family lineage. Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Nordic countries of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Unlike other Nordics, Icelanders have continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used by all Nordic countries. The Icelandic system is thus not based on family names. Generally, with few exceptions, a person's last name indicates the first name of their father (patronymic) or in some cases mother (matronymic) in the genitive, followed by -son ("son") or -dóttir ("daughter").
Eastern Slavic naming customs are the traditional way of identifying a person's family name, given name and patronymic name in East Slavic cultures in Russia and some countries formerly part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.
A matronymic is a personal name or a parental name based on the given name of one's mother, grandmother, or any female ancestor. It is the female equivalent of a patronymic. Around the world, matronymic surnames are far less common than patronymic surnames. In some cultures in the past, matronymic last names were often given to children of unwed mothers. Or if a woman was especially well known or powerful, her descendants might adopt a matronym based on her name. A matronymic is a derived name, as compared to a matriname, which is an inherited name from a mother's side of the family, and which is unchanged.
Polish names have two main elements: the given name, and the surname. The usage of personal names in Poland is generally governed by civil law, church law, personal taste and family custom.
Fixed surnames were adopted in Wales from the 15th century onwards. Until then, the Welsh had a patronymic naming system.
Sørensen is a Danish-Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Søren". As of 2022, it is the eighth most common surname in Denmark. Immigrants to English-speaking countries often changed the spelling to Sorensen or Sorenson in order to accommodate English orthographic rules. English-language media often similarly renders Sørensen as either Sorensen or Sorenson. A parallel form of similar origin is Severinsen.
This article features the naming culture of personal names of ethnic Serbs and the Serbian language. Serbian names are rendered in the "Western name order" with the surname placed after the given name. "Eastern name order" may be used when multiple names appear in a sorted list, particularly in official notes and legal documents when the last name is capitalized.
In Finland, a person must have a surname and at least one given name with up to three given names permitted. Surnames are inherited either patrilineally or matrilineally, while given names are usually chosen by a person's parents. Finnish names come from a variety of dissimilar traditions that were consolidated only in the early 20th century. The first national act on names came into force in 1921, and it made surnames mandatory. Between 1930 and 1985, the Western Finnish tradition whereby a married woman took her husband's surname was mandatory. Previously in Eastern Finland, this was not necessarily the case. On 1 January 2019, the reformed Act on Forenames and Surnames came into force.
A Georgian name consists of a given name and a surname used by ethnic Georgians.
Basque surnames are surnames with Basque-language origins or a long, identifiable tradition in the Basque Country. They can be divided into two main types, patronymic and non-patronymic.
A Slavic name suffix is a common way of forming patronymics, family names, and pet names in the Slavic languages. Many, if not most, Slavic last names are formed by adding possessive and other suffixes to given names and other words. Most Slavic surnames have suffixes which are found in varying degrees over the different nations. Some surnames are not formed in this way, including names of non-Slavic origin. They are also seen in North America, Argentina, and Australia.
Scottish surnames are surnames currently found in Scotland, or surnames that have a historical connection with the country.
In Sweden, a person must have a surname and one or more given names. Two given names are common. Surnames are inherited from the parents, in the order of "same as elder sibling, if any; specified by parents; or mother's last name," while given names must be chosen by the parents at birth. The calling name by which the person is normally identified in conversation, is in Scandinavian countries one of the given names, not necessarily the first. In contexts where the full name is spelled out, the calling name is often indicated by an asterisk, by capital letters, or underlines or italics. For example, Märta Birgit* Nilsson is known as Birgit Nilsson, while Björn* Kristian Ulvaeus is known as Björn Ulvaeus.
By the 18th century almost all Ukrainians had family names. Most Ukrainian surnames are formed by adding possessive and other suffixes to given names, place names, professions and other words.
A toponymic surname or topographic surname is a surname derived from a place name, which included names of specific locations, such as the individual's place of origin, residence, or lands that they held, or, more generically, names that were derived from regional topographic features. Some toponymic surnames originated as personal by-names that later were used as hereditary family names.
A patronymic surname is a surname originated from the given name of the father or a patrilineal ancestor. Different cultures have different ways of producing patronymic surnames.