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The
name culture in Sweden (and other Nordic countries) |
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In Uganda, people give their babies two or more names, not forename and surname, because that is impossible, just two names. So they should actually be called two forenames. Quoted
from Saturday vision January 9, 2010: First you have one or several forename(s). It could be only one (unusual), two or more. I have heard that some people (a hundred years ago or more) got up to twelve forenames. I wonder how they could remember all of them. The name that they attend to, which does not have to be the first one, is what is written for short, in signatures and in enumerations at school. The second name is the so called family name or the surname. That is the name that normally is inherited from the parents (usually the father). It could be patrilineal or matrilineal or none of them. The patrilineal name consists of the father's forename, a genitive s and "son" added. For example if the father has the forename Johan, his son would be Johan's son, but there is no apostrophe before genitive s in Swedish. The surname would then be Johansson. That is the reason why they (usually) have two s in surnames. For the same reason the daughter would get the mother's forename with an s and dotter (daughter in Swedish) added. The use of patrilineal and matrilineal surnames as a rule finished at the former turn of century (1899 - 1900). When two people get married the couple usually takes the surname of the husband as their surname. If they think that the surname of the wife is nicer, they could choose that as a surname of the family, but they have to inform the pastor before he marries them. They can, of course change it later, but then they have to apply for it, and that costs money. If the parents are not married (not unusual these days), the authorities give the offspring the surname of the mother. Surnames are not sex-typed, as they are in Russia, so there is nothing mysterious about that. A married couple with different surnames is also very unusual. The authorities always approve of changing the surname to the patrilineal name, since that is an old custom. If people change their surname, they usually choose a name which is a combination of two occurrences from the nature. They also try to make the spelling of the surname look old, as if the family had had that name for a very long time. That is, 1905 they had a spelling reform which changed many words with f when it was pronounced as v, to v. Also the combination ch to k, dt to t and some other cases, which I have forgotten. A nobleman was a man who had promised to defend his country in the case of war, a long time ago. He got the appointment from the King. The nobleman got his surname which could be a quality or a birth place or something else that characterized him. If there were two noblemen with the same surname but from different places, they added af (Swedish), von (German) or de (French) before the name of the castle the lived at. Some people just thought it looked nice, so they added the pronoun and the place even if they didn't have to. Before we had computers, when they only had cards in boxes, they had to assort the surname first, and then the forename. These days when we have computers that are able to enumerate at the surname without changing the order, they keep on to that only because it is customary to do so. In those cases they should put a comma between, such as "Johan Andersson" would become "Andersson, Johan". A forename could become a surname, but a surname ending with -son could never become a forename, i.e. like Nelson. Having a forename as a surname is unusual, though. |
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Swedish
forenames
(names with å, ä or ö in them are excluded)
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Male
names |
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Abel |
Eugen |
Josef Julius Justus Kaj Karl Kasper Kennet Kent Kim Kjell Klas Klemens Knut Konrad Konstantin Krister Kristian Kristoffer Kurt Lage Lars Leif Lennart Leo Leonard Leopold Linus Lorentz Love Ludvig Lukas Magnus Malkolm Malte Manfred Markus Martin Mats Matteus Mattias Maurits Max Melker Mikael Morgan Moritz Moses Natanael Niklas Nikolaus Nils Ola Olaus Oliver Olof Orvar Oskar Osvald Otto Ove Patrik Paul Per Peter Pontus Rafael Ragnar Ralf Raoul Rasmus Reidar Reine |
Reinhild
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Ada |
Ella |
Jenny Jessika Johanna Jonna Josefina Judit Julia Justina Kajsa Karin Karla Karolina Katarina Katja Kerstin Klara Kristina Laila Laura Lea Leila Lena Lilian Lillemor Lilly Linda Linn Linnea Lisa Lisbet Liv Lotta Louise Lovisa Lucia Lydia Madeleine Magdalena Magnhild Maj Majken Majvor Malena Malin Margareta Margit Margot Maria Mariana Marianne Marika Marina Marit Marita Marlene Marta Martina Matilda Maud Mikaela Mirjam Moa Mona Monika Nadja Naemi Naima Nanna Natalia Natalie Olga Olivia Ottilia |
Paula Paulina Pernilla Petra Petronella Pia Ragna Ragnhild Rakel Rebecka Regina Reidun Rigmor Rita Ritva Rosa Rosita Rut Sabina Sandra Sara Selma Sibylla Sigbritt Signe Signhild Sigrid Silvia Simone Siri Sissela Siv Sofia Solbritt Solveig Sonja Stella Susanna Svea Sylvia Tanja Tea Tekla Teodora Terese Teresia Toini Tora Torborg Torun Tove Turid Tyra Ulla Ulrika Ursula Valborg Vanja Vega Vendela Vera Veronika Vibeke Viktoria Vilhelmina Vilma Viola Virginia Viveka Vivianne Ylva Yrsa Yvonne |
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Mikael Lillieros |
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