Scandinavian family name etymology

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 -ssøn .

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] and 2012.[3] 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	Type	Etymology
1	Jensen	368,631	264,824	patronymic	son of Jens
2	Nielsen	349,126	264,159	patronymic	son of Niels
3	Hansen	297,937	220,956	patronymic	son of Hans
4	Pedersen	203,426	166,417	patronymic	son of Peder
5	Andersen	188,359	161,379	patronymic	son of Anders
6	Christensen	159,943	121,147	patronymic	son of Christen
7	Larsen	148,214	118,144	patronymic	son of Lars
8	Sørensen	139,111	113,207	patronymic	son of Søren
9	Rasmussen	117,355	96,250	patronymic	son of Rasmus
10	Jørgensen	110,132	89,846	patronymic	son of Jørgen
11	Petersen	130,236	81,250	patronymic	son of Peter
12	Madsen	76,441	65,222	patronymic	son of Mads
13	Kristensen	58,990	61,274	patronymic	son of Kristen
14	Olsen	65,194	49,091	patronymic	son of Ole
15	Thomsen	40,180	39,473	patronymic	son of Thomas
16	Christiansen	45,984	37,493	patronymic	son of Christian
17	Poulsen	36,544	32,526	patronymic	son of Poul
18	Johansen	36,470	31,517	patronymic	son of Johan
19	Møller	31,645	30,321	occupational	miller
20	Johnsen	28,660	24,787	patronymic	son of Jon

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. Surnames derived from placenames commonly originated as farm names. Most families took a patronymic name, but some adopted a farm name.[4] 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 is down to 18.4% for the newborns of 2009.[5]

The most common Norwegian surnames would include many names which originated as farm names: Bakke/Bakken (hill or rise), Berg/Berge (mountain or hill), Dahl/Dal (valley), Haugen/Haugan (hill or mound), Lie (side of a valley), Moen (meadow), or Rud (clearing).[6]

The listing of 20 most common Norwegian surnames:[7]

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

Main article: Swedish name

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:[8]

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
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
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

• Icelandic name
• List of most common surnames in Europe

References

1. MyDanishRoots.com
2. University of Copenhagen, Unit for Name Research
3. "Navne - Danmarks Statistik". Dst.dk. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
4. Norwegian Naming Patterns
5. Name statistics for 2009 (Statistics Norway, SSB)
6. Norwegian-American Surnames (Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume XII: Page 1
7. Statistics Norway
8. Swedish Name Statistics

External links

• The 100 most common surnames in Denmark
• Most Common Surnames in Sweden
• Most Common Surnames in Norway