Icelandic name

A simple genealogical tree, showing the system Icelandic appointment.

Icelandic given names differ from most Western surname systems. In the Icelandic case, the naming is based on the old format of using the patronymic surname (and in some cases matronymic), and refers to the immediate father (or mother) of the subject to be named; that is, there is no historical lineage trace in the name. In Iceland the archaic Norse naming system is still maintained. The main reasons for the conservation of this system, suppressed for centuries in the rest of Europe, are the desire of the Icelanders to preserve their cultural and, above all, linguistic traditions, as well as the small number of inhabitants of Iceland.

Iceland shares a cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Icelanders, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional naming system, which was in fact formerly used throughout Scandinavia.

The Icelandic system does not use family names. A person's surname indicates the name of the father (or mother in some cases) of the subject. Some family names exist in Iceland; most of them are inherited by parents of foreign origin; but some are adopted. A famous Icelander who has an inherited family name is football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen. Until before 1925 it was legal to adopt a new family name; a famous Icelander who did it this way was Nobel Prize winner Halldór Laxness. Since then, one cannot adopt a family name unless one has the "right" because of inheritance.

Typical Icelandic Naming

The way to create a "surname" It's very simple. In most cases, the father's name is taken in the genitive case and the ending -son (for a boy) and -dóttir (for a girl) is added. Surnames generated from the mother's name are also legally accepted and, in recent years, have gained wide acceptance and use, among other things due to the increase in the number of single mothers.

For example, a man named Jón Einarsson has a son named Ólafur. Ólafur's last name will not be Einarsson as with his father, but will be Jónsson, literally indicating that Ólafur is the son of Jón (Jón + son, meaning son).

The same practice is used with daughters. The daughter of Jón Einarsson, Sigríður, will not bear the surname Einarsson; instead, she will bear the surname Jónsdóttir. Again, this literally indicates that Sigríður is the daughter of Jón (Jón + dóttir, meaning daughter).

In some cases, an individual surname is derived from the middle name of the subject's parents, rather than the first name. For example, if Jón is the son of Hjálmar Arnar Vilhjálmsson, he can be named either Jón Hjálmarsson (Jón son of Hjálmar) or Jón Arnarsson (Jón son of Arnar).

In cases where two people from the same social circle bear the same first name and the same father's name, they are socially distinguished by their grandfather's paternal name. For example, Jón Þórsson Bjarnarsonar (Jón son of Þór Bjarnarson) and Jón Þórsson Hallssonar (Jón son of Þór Hallsson). This method is not very common (as middle names are more common), but such lineage tracing can be seen in sagas.

• Example: The marriage Helgi Sveinbjargarson, husband, and Ásdís Τorkelsdóttir, woman, have a child (Ímir) and a daughter (.). The names of the children will therefore be Ímir Helgason (literally "Yarmir son of Helgi") and Τhaw Helgadóttir ("Hope daughter of Helgi"). You can also choose to form the surname from the mother's name (equally in the genitive) and not use the father's name, in that case we would have Îmir Ásdísarson and CHEER ASSDISARDITT. This last possibility is still very rare as Icelandic people are still used to being guided by the father's name and, for example, they would have difficulty identifying these people in the phone book.

Matronymic name as an option

The vast majority of Icelandic surnames bear the father's name, but in some cases the mother's name is used for various reasons. Sometimes the child or the legal parents wish to end the social ties with the father. Some women wear it as a social statement, and other people simply choose this option for sheer style and nothing else. In all these cases, the procedure is exactly the same.

Cultural Ramifications

Members of other cultures often find it unusual for Icelanders to call others by their first name. For example, former Prime Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson will not be called Ásgrímsson or Mr. Ásgrímsson by another Icelander; he will be called by his first name (or first and middle, if he has it), or by his full name. The cultural significance of the Icelandic surname is not to be part of one's first name, but to constitute a small description of who the individual is. For example, Halldór is Ásgrímsson - a son of Ásgrímur. Legally, it is part of the name. Culturally, it is a definition of who fathered whom, even if that definition seems to be vague.

Another good example of the formal way someone is called in Iceland is the singer and actress Björk. "Björk" it is commonly confused as a stage name or an artistic expression. Anyway, Björk is just the first name of Björk Guðmundsdóttir; so any Icelander would call her that formally or casually.

Curiosities

On an anecdotal note, there are always little problems that arise when an Icelandic family of four checks into a hotel abroad and none of the last names of those individuals match.

The names of citizens in telephone lists, or any other type of alphabetical organization chart, are not ordered by the last name of the individual, but by their first name. Thus, Ari Bjarnason would be ahead of Bjarni Arason.