Icelandic name
Encyclopedia
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
systems by being patronymic
Patronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
(occasionally matronymic
Matronymic
A matronymic is a personal name based on the name of one's mother, grandmother, or any female ancestor. It is the female equivalent of a patronymic. In patriarchal societies, matronymic surnames are far less common than patronyms. In the past, matronymic last names were often given to children of...
) in that they reflect the immediate father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage.
Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...
shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n countries of Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
with its crown dependency the Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands are an island group situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, along with Denmark proper and Greenland...
. Icelanders, however, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional name
Name
A name is a word or term used for identification. Names can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. A personal name identifies a specific unique and identifiable individual person, and may or may not include a middle name...
system, which was formerly used in all of Scandinavia; it has also been re-introduced in the Faroe Islands. A well-known example is Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson
Leif Ericson was a Norse explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America , nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus...
, son of Erik the Red
Erik the Red
Erik Thorvaldsson , known as Erik the Red , is remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. The Icelandic tradition indicates that he was born in the Jæren district of Rogaland, Norway, as the son of Thorvald Asvaldsson, he therefore...
. The Icelandic system does not use family name
Family name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
s. A person's surname
Surname
A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...
indicates the first name
Given name
A given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
of the person's father (patronymic) or in some cases mother (matronymic).
Some family names exist in Iceland, mostly inherited from parents of foreign origin, while some are adopted. Examples of notable Icelanders who have an inherited family name are former prime minister Geir Haarde
Geir Haarde
Geir Hilmar Haarde was Prime Minister of Iceland from 15 June 2006 to 1 February 2009 and Chairman of the Icelandic Independence Party from 2005 to 2009. Geir initially led a coalition between his party and the Progressive Party...
, football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen
Eiður Guðjohnsen
Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen is an Icelandic footballer who currently plays for AEK Athens F.C. in the Superleague Greece. He has previously played for Premier League club Chelsea and FC Barcelona of Spain, having made his name with Bolton Wanderers. He was the captain of the Iceland national team until...
, Icelandic actress Kristbjörg Kjelld, actor Magnús Scheving
Magnús Scheving
Magnús Örn Eyjólfsson Scheving was born 10 November 1964 to Þórveig Hjartardóttir and Eyjólfur Magnússon Scheving. He is an Icelandic writer, producer, entrepreneur, and a famous athlete. He is the creator and co-star of the children's television show LazyTown.-Career:In 1992 he became the...
, film director Baltasar Kormákur Samper
Baltasar Kormákur
Baltasar Kormákur is an Icelandic actor, theater and film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the films 101 Reykjavík, Hafið, A Little Trip to Heaven , and a film based on the book Mýrin by Arnaldur Indriðason...
, actress Anita Briem
Anita Briem
Anita Briem is an Icelandic actress. She is known for her role as Jane Seymour on The Tudors and her role as Hanna in Journey to the Center of the Earth.-Personal life:...
and news reporter Elín Hirst
Elín Hirst
Elín Stefánsdóttir Hirst is an Icelandic journalist, television personality, documentary filmmaker and former anchor. She was head of news of Icelandic public television channel Sjónvarpið from 2002 to 2008....
. Before 1925, it was legal to adopt new family names; one Icelander to do so was the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
-winning author Halldór Laxness
Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...
. Since 1925, one cannot adopt a family name unless one explicitly has a legal right to do so through inheritance.
First names that have not been previously used in Iceland must be approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee
Icelandic Naming Committee
The Icelandic Naming Committee is a body established in 1991 that governs the introduction of new given names to the culture of Iceland: it determines whether a name that has not been used in the country before is suitable for integration into the Icelandic language...
before being used. The criterion for acceptance of names is whether or not they can be easily incorporated into the Icelandic language. First, they must contain only letters found in the Icelandic alphabet
Icelandic alphabet
The modern Icelandic alphabet consists of the following 32 letters:It is a Latin alphabet with diacritics, in addition it includes the character eth Ðð and the runic letter thorn Þþ...
and second, they must be able to be declined
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
(that is, modified according to their grammatical case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
).
Typical Icelandic naming
For example, a man named JónJón
Jón is an Old Norse common name still widely used in Iceland and the Faroes.According to Icelandic custom, people are generally referred to by first and middle names and patronyms are used if disambiguation is required....
Stefán
Stefán
Stefán is a common first name in Iceland.According to Icelandic custom, people are generally referred to by first and middle names and patronyms are used if disambiguation is required....
sson has a son named Fjalar
Fjalar
In Norse mythology, Fjalar may refer to:* Fjalar and Galar, dwarf brothers who killed the god Kvasir and turned his blood into the mead of poetry* The other is a rooster that will crow to signify the beginning of Ragnarok...
. 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 name literally meaning "Jón's daughter" (Jóns + dóttir).
In some cases, an individual's surname is derived from a parent's middle name instead of the 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 the middle name instead of the first name; this is fairly common. It may also be that the parent's middle name seems to fit the child's first name better.
In cases where two people in the same social circle bear the same first name and the same father's name, they may be 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). Although this method is uncommon (as middle names are normally used), such tracing of lineages can easily be seen in the Sagas
Icelanders' sagas
The Sagas of Icelanders —many of which are also known as family sagas—are prose histories mostly describing events that took place in Iceland in the 10th and early 11th centuries, during the so-called Saga Age. They are the best-known specimens of Icelandic literature.The Icelanders'...
.
Matronymic naming as a choice
The vast majority of Icelandic surnames carry the name of the father, but occasionally the mother's name is used: e.g., in cases where the child or mother wishes to end social ties with the biological father. Some women use it as a social statement while others simply choose it as a matter of style. An Icelander whose father's identity is uncertain may also carry a matronymic name.In all of these cases, the convention is the same: Fjalar, the son of Bryndís, will have the full name of Fjalar Bryndísarson ("the son of Bryndís"). One well-known Icelander with a matronymic name is football player Heiðar Helguson
Heiðar Helguson
Heiðar Helguson is an Icelandic footballer who plays as a striker for Queens Park Rangers....
, another is novelist Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir
Guðrún Eva Minervudóttir
Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir is an Icelandic writer born on March 17, 1976. She studied philosophy at the University of Iceland. Her first novel and collection came out in 1998 to acclaim. She has written five novels since then. In 2000 her novel Fyrirlestur um hamingjuna was nominated for the...
. One medieval example is the poet Eilífr Goðrúnarson
Eilífr Goðrúnarson
Eilífr Goðrúnarson was a late 10th century skald, considered to be the author of the poem Þórsdrápa. He is also credited with Hákonar drápa jarls and a fragment remains of a poem with Christian allusions which is also believed to be his work...
.
Some people have both a matronymic and a patronymic: for example, Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson, a former mayor of Reykjavík.
Cultural ramifications – how to address people
In Iceland, directories such as the telephone directory are alphabetised by first name rather than surname. To reduce ambiguity, the telephone directory goes further by also listing professions. In RussiaRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where name-patronyms of similar style were historically used (such as Ivan Petrovich), the much larger population necessitated the introduction of surnames, and delegated the patronymic to record-keeping middle-name and conversational honorific.
Icelanders formally address others by their first names. By way of example, the prime minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir , , is the Prime Minister of Iceland. Many years a politician, she was previously Iceland's Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security from 1987–1994 and 2007–2009. She has been a member of the Althing for Reykjavík constituencies since 1978, winning re-election on eight...
would not be addressed as 'Ms' Sigurðardóttir but either by her first name or her full name.
If there are two men named Jón in the same group, perhaps one named Jón Stefánsson and the other Jón Þorláksson, one could address Jón Stefánsson as "Jón Stefáns" and Jón Þorláksson as "Jón Þorláks". When someone holds a conversation with these two people at the same time, the appendage "son" would not need to be used; in that case, the father's name could be used like a nickname, although this is not a common occurrence because many people are in this case instead referred to by their middle names.
Icelandic singer and actress Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...
does not use a stage name but simply her first name (her full name is Björk Guðmundsdóttir). Björk is how any Icelander would address her, whether formally or casually. If an interviewer prefers to stick to the English way of addressing Björk, "Ms Björk" would be used.
As a result of each person using patronymics, a family will normally have a variety of last names: the parents could be named Jón Stefánsson and Bryndís Atladóttir, and their children might be Fjalar Jónsson and Katrín Jónsdóttir. With matronymics, the children in this example would be Fjalar Bryndísarson and Katrín Bryndísardóttir.
The Icelandic naming system occasionally causes problems for families travelling abroad, especially with young children, since non-Icelandic customs staff (apart from those of other Nordic countries) are usually unfamiliar with the practice and therefore expect children to have the surnames of their parents.
However, people of Icelandic descent who live in foreign countries, such as the significant Icelandic community in Manitoba, Canada, often do not follow the traditional Icelandic naming system. Instead, they generally adapt to the naming conventions of their country of residence—most commonly by retaining the patronymic of their first ancestor to immigrate to the new country as a permanent family surname.
See also
- List of Icelanders
- Icelandic languageIcelandic languageIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
- Scandinavian family name etymologyScandinavian family name etymologyHeritable 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...
- Germanic nameGermanic nameGermanic given names are traditionally dithematic; that is, they are formed from two elements, by joining a prefix and a suffix. For example, King Æþelred's name was derived from æþel, for "noble", and ræd, for "counsel". Many of these names are still used today, while others have fallen out of use...
- Naming conventions share similarities with Icelandic names: Ethiopian name, Mongolian name, Russian patronymics, Scottish Gaelic personal naming systemScottish Gaelic personal naming system-Forenames:Scottish Gaelic has a number of personal names, such as Ailean, Aonghas, Dòmhnall, Donnchadh, Coinneach, and Murchadh, for which there are traditional forms in English...