Danes plan to (optionally) return to Patronymic Names

Until the late nineteenth century, patronymic naming conventions were common in Scandinavia, Wales, and a number of other countries. In fact, patronymic names are still used in Iceland. Now Denmark is returning to the tradition of their forefathers.

By way of explanation, patronymic naming is the practice of creating last names from the name of one's father. For example, Robert, John's son, would become Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson's son Neil would become Neil Robertson. Patronymic names are a problem for genealogists; tracking a family tree is most difficult when the surnames change every generation.

Starting next April, Danish newborns will no longer be required to share a last name with either of their parents. A new law allows a return to the Viking tradition of patronymics. Instead of maintaining a single last name across generations, in this system each generation of children is given a last name that consists simply of the father's or mother's first name with the suffix "son" or "datter" (daughter) added on.

Patronymic names were the only names used in Denmark from Viking days until 1828, when it was banned by law. The reason was simple: public authorities were having difficulties tracking people. These "public authorities" included tax collectors, the military draft boards, and the public education system. The 1828 law simply froze the process, dictating that new generations would keep the patronymic of the head of the family at that time. The unfortunate result was that two thirds of Danes still carry a limited selection of names such as Nielsen, Jensen, and Hansen.

For instance, both the former prime minister and current prime minister have a surname of Rasmussen. Foreigners often wonder whether they are related. They aren't; they're just Danes.

Of course, in these politically-correct times, the old traditions are being modified a bit. In the "old days," a baby's surname always reflected the father's first name. The new law allows for naming a child after the mother's first name by adding "datter." In addition, the new law allows for other forms of nomenclature, including Tamil and Arabic patronymics and Slavonic traditions of gender-specific suffixes such as -ski for men and -ska for women.

The primary reason for allowing people to go back to the old Viking methods was computers. It seems that there are so many Johnsons, Hansens, and Rasmussens in Denmark that keeping track of people by names is impractical. Instead, everyone has a number, somewhat similar to the Social Security numbers used in the United States. Computers can easily track unique numbers; so, everyone in Denmark is already tracked that way in computer databases. With no need to use any particular naming convention, the country is now free to revert to the methods of their horned-helmeted ancestors.

Comments

[HMJ]

This is very interesting to me as my name is JENSEN. It should have been HANSEN as my greatgrandfather was Jens HANSEN but in 1859 when grandpa the oldest child was born they used the old tradition. The law was to use the fathers surname but all the children were named JENSEN.
Note: The Danes and Norweigens use "sen" and the Swedes use "son".

[HMF]

Patronymic naming is great response to the USA Patriot Act for those that don't like it. A small price for true Patriotic Genealogist to pay.

[Linda Vixie]

It's not true that Danish patronymics in the past were *always* based on the father's first name. I've seen cases in which an illegitimate child was given the mother's name in the patronymic: Gregers Marensson, Kirstine Marensdotter, etc.

Also, under the new law, wouldn't a child named for the mother be -dotter or -son, depending on the sex of the child? Or are boys not allowed to be named for the mother?

--Linda, whose mitochondrial DNA comes from Denmark

[Bev]

Suffixes in Danish or Norwegian are correctly -sen or -datter, and in Swedish -son or -dotter. In southern Norway I've sometimes seen -søn or -dotter during the years Norway was under Swedish rule, but I haven't found that to be the case in northern Norway (yet). As with American records, it also depends on the educational background and the whim of the person writing the records.

I have ancestors from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark (as well as England, Ireland, Holland, and Alsace). My mtDNA also goes straight back to Denmark, a little island named Taasinge (Tåsinge seems to be the modern spelling) in Svendborg Amt.

In my Danish gr-gr-grandmother's case, her baptism record lists both her father's and mother's patronymic names, although she was an illegitimate birth and no records of her parents marrying have been found. At her baptism he declared he was the father, and her patronymic name included his first name, and that's how she's listed in census data, too.

In Norway and Denmark I've found that the church baptism records didn't adhere to having one surname in the mid-to-late-19th century, but used the patronymic naming system when listing the parents and the child's name (ditto, marriage records). I don't know if that was a common practice or not, but in my family's records, and in the families of spouses of my parents' and grandparents' siblings' ancestors that I have researched, that has been the case in various Norwegian counties. Immigration records from Norway in the mid-to-late 19th century vary; some use patronymic names, and others use their first name plus either the farm name on which they were born, or the name of the farm where they worked just before emigrating. Census records in Norway and Denmark in the mid-19th century use the patronymic names of all the people I've researched (so far). Perhaps in larger metropolitan areas the law about adopting one surname was practiced; my ancestors were from small communities.

In Norway in ancient times when locations didn't have a minister, it sometimes happened that when the traveling minister arrived in a remote area every few years he would marry the people who had been living as common-law husband and wife, and he would baptize the children who had been born when they set up housekeeping together at the same time he married the parents. Even if there were illegitimate births, usually the father is named because during those times fathers did take parental responsibility for their offspring even if they didn't marry the mothers of the children they sired, and illegitimacy didn't carry the stigma in their culture that it has in America.

Some have said the patronymic naming system is confusing, but I must be too used to doing research in Scandinavia (particularly Norway). Unless I run into too many men named Ole Olsen, I'm never confused. I always have the name of the father, and by checking out the names of the oldest daughters I can guess the names of the parents' mothers since they almost always followed the naming system.... oldest son named for the father's father, second son named for the mother's father, oldest daughter named for the father's mother, second daughter named for the mother's mother - the other children named for aunts or uncles of either parent.

I must admit, however, that it's a bit easier tracking the offspring and parents of Ingebrigt Ingebrigtsen or Staal Staalsen than those of Ole Olsen.... ;-)

[Bev]

I assume, Dick, that the referernce to horned helmets was a bit of satire...? :-)

Archaeologists and anthropologists long ago proved the horned helmets were an artistic motif with no basis in fact. Check out the famous helmet dug up at Sutton Hoo, or any info from the archaeological dig at York (now a museum site, Jorvik).

[Jesper Nielsen]

Dick, as one of many Nielsens in Denmark your article caught my eye. But the story is a bit longer as Bev implies.
When the authorities found out about the large number of similar names appearing after the new law, they encouraged people to change their names. So almost all the danes without a -sen in the last name, are named after af farm (-gaard) or other nearby locations - fx. rivers, hills - or proffessions.

The more academic part of the population often translated this name into latin. Thats why one of the two danish winners of the Nobel prize in litterature has the name Pontoppidan - constructed from the name of his ancestors hometown Broby - meaning bridge town. (The other litterature Nobel-winner? His name is of course: Jensen).

Jesper Nielsen, Denmark

[AnnieA]

I can validate Linda's statement. My husband's grandfather, born 1866 in Odense, was given his mother's patronymic of Andersen as he was an illegitimate child. He was the immigrant ancestor so Andersen was carried on but our last name should really be Larsen!

[Bev]

Jesper is right about the location and occupation names that were adopted as surnames, and the fact that it's a bit more complicated when one gets into the details. I've found this true in records in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

My Norwegian ancestors took the name of the farm they came from in Norway, although my Norwegian gr-grandmother used the farm name she was working on before she left Norway on the immigration and ship's passenger records and when she got to America (it's on the marriage certificate in ND Territory), rather than the name of the farm on which she was born. When a 5th cousin in Norway sent me genealogy information, he used the first name, patronymic name, and often the farm name the people were born on as part of the surname. As a recent pen-pal in Buskerud noted, the real name is the first name, the second name identifies the person as the son or daughter of the father (or mother in some cases), and the third location name just identifies where that person lived. Correctly interpreted, first name, son/daughter of___, from ___ gives a lot of information!

My Danish gr-gr-grandparents' wife and children adopted his patronymic surname when they arrived here, although the middle initial of B for him that is listed on the 1885 MN state census seems to be his father's occupation, Bødker, which shows up as a surname tacked on his father's name on his baptism record.

Another country with a lot of Scandinavian names is England, up by York and west and south into the midlands. During the Anglo-Saxon invasions and settlements, some locations acquired a lea (meadow) sound: ly, ley, lea, lee, leigh. (My full first name, Beverly, is supposed to have been derived from Beow-for-lea, or Old Anglo-Saxon for "dweller by the beaver meadow." There are at least two towns named Beverly and Beverley in the Yorkshire area, and another town in a different part of England also named Beverly.) Later Viking invasions in the Yorkshire and English midlands area resulted in many town names with the suffix "by" (town) - it's a word that did not change meaning over the centuries, and English towns ending in 'by' were almost certainly named after Viking traders and farmers settled there (Crosby = Cross Town; Nordby = North Town; Kirkby = Church Town). I found a fascinating section of the GENUKI-Yorkshire web site for the 1379 Subsidy Tax... and the names reflect original Celtic-Gaelic names plus those of various invading peoples: Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, and even some French and Dutch names (from the Norman invasion and a reflection of the wool trade with the Lowlands). Even the women's full names are listed. The terms for their occupations and positions in the households are in Latin, but the names are fascinating to an amateur etymologist!

Norway has had three major language transitions. Gammel Norsk is still spoken in Iceland where they still use the patronymic naming system (which means women keep their own names their entire lives, just as they used to in the three Scandinavian countries). After the plague killed off the royalty in Norway in the 14th century, Norway ceded itself to Denmark - until the Napoleonic wars when Denmark started losing some land when Norway ceded itself to Sweden. Dano-Norwegian was used for many centuries in Norway. By the end of the 19th century the Norwegians started pushing for independence and for 'Norwegianizing Norwegian.' In 1905 Norway became a separate country again, and because language and customs were more closely tied to Denmark, the second son of the Danish royal family became the king of Norway, and his descendants are Norway's royalty today. By 1917 a new dictionary featuring Bokmål and Nynorsk was completed. Most of the Norwegian records I've been searching use Dano-Norwegian because they are from the mid-to-late 19th century and earlier. Various spellings are used because some letters are interchangeable - and, of course, like American records, the spellings used also depend largely on the educational background of the writer.

In any case, knowing something of the language and history of the three Scandinavian countries is of enormous benefit in finding data in online records.

[Isabelle H.]

Very interesting! This will create some new last names. For my family cousins in Denmark there could be a Steensen or a Torbensen.

[Marion West]

Many Swedish names end in "quist." This denotes military service. My Grandmothers name was Lundquist because her Grandfather had served for ten years in the Swedish Dragoons. I don't know how the 1st part was chosen as his name previous to service was Nielson and he was from an area called Assum.

[Rich Nundal]

A detailed article titled "Understanding Scandinavian Naming Patterns" appeared in Heritage Quest Magazine #111, June 2004.

[-changing from sen to son in Denmark?]

My gr gr gr grandpa's name was Hans Hanson when he came to America and so were his children's last name Hanson not Hansen.... we wonder why?? why not leave it as Hansen???

Hans Hanson's parents were Hans Nielsen and Dorthea Hansen ...

Help me here,

Craig Loren Hanson

[-changing from sen to son in Denmark?]

My gr gr gr grandpa's name was Hans Hanson when he came to America and so were his children's last name Hanson not Hansen.... we wonder why?? why not leave it as Hansen???

Hans Hanson's parents were Hans Nielsen and Dorthea Hansen ...

Help me here,

Craig Loren Hanson

[-changing from sen to son in Denmark?]

My gr gr gr grandpa's name was Hans Hanson when he came to America and so were his children's last name Hanson not Hansen.... we wonder why?? why not leave it as Hansen???

Hans Hanson's parents were Hans Nielsen and Dorthea Hansen ...

Help me here,

Craig Loren Hanson

[Thor]

-sen or -son? It is a bit confusing. In Norway as in Sweden, -son and dotter (or dottir) was the original suffix. Due to danish influence -sen and datter came graduarly into use during the 16th, 17th century.
Many norwegians and danes who emmigrated to North America changed their names from -sen to -son, Carlsen to Carlson, Hansen to Hanson most likely because of phonetic reasons. The -son ending is maybe easier to pronounce or sounds better than -sen in the English language.

[Abhinav Maurya]

I came across this via a friend's blog. It's very interesting to know that people do care about having correct names.

[Richard Magnuson]

Re: Bev's comment about her gr-gr-grandfather having the name Bødker as part of his name. A bødker is a cooper as that was my Danish gr-gr-grandfather's profession from the Danish census. A cooper made staved vessels such as barrels.