From Oz to Oslo

Knowing my fascination with Norwegian names, my boyfriend informed me that the country’s Central Statistics Bureau (SSB) collects data about names in Norway. It includes information about first and last names, dating back to 1870. You can search for the top 50 names for particular periods, or you can type in any name to see how many people share it across the country or in a particular region. (Go on, go there and do a vanity search on your own name now!)

Let the Names Begin
Before I tackled SSB, I had several theories about Norwegian names and their popularity. I was convinced the most common name in Norway for females is Camilla (as I know seven people called Camilla or Kamilla) and for males Espen (because I know four). However, some brief research on SSB uncovered that the most popular names in Norway at the moment are Mathias for boys (followed by Jonas, Markus and Alexander) and Sara for girls (followed by Thea, Emma and Julie). According to SSB, Norway is experiencing a revival of names that were popular in the early 1900s but completely out of vogue even 50 years ago. While biblical names are also enjoying a comeback, old Norse names are very much in use, such as names for gods like Tor (see left) and Odin. Another trend is that as Norway becomes more multicultural and exposed to the world, names containing the special Norwegian letters æ, ø and å are gradually going out of fashion.

I also extended my research beyond SSB. If you are also having difficulty guessing someone’s gender from their Norwegian name, here are some tips I picked up to save us all some embarrassment:
• Typical endings for female names: borg, gunn, bjørg, frid, gerd, heid, hild, møy, rid, run, siv, unn, veig, vild (I find this particularly confusing because to me ‘borg’ and ‘gunn’ sound very, well, butch)
• And for men: alf, ar, bein, bjørn, brand, dan, e, fast, finn, gar, geir, grim, id, kjell, leif, leik, ljot, mund, mod, ne, odd, rød, stein, tor, ulf, ung, vald, vard, ve, vind, vor.

From my own experiences in Norway, I’ve also encountered Norwegian first names that will provide some giggles for English-speakers: Even, Odd, Simen (pronounced like, erm, ‘seamen’… and my boyfriend actually knows someone called Odd Simen), Aase, Snorre, Dag (maybe only Australians will find that one funny ), Wenche, Roar, Knut and Jørund (pronounced a little like ‘urine’).
I tried to find out what names Norwegians consider to be lower-class (dare I say ‘trailer trash’?), like say ‘Cheryl’ in Australia… but the best I could find out was that you generally don’t want to name your son ‘Harry’. (Harry is also the Norwegian term for trailer trash. Ha!)

SSB also has some information about middle names. Middle names did not become popular in Norway until the 1840s, so only 48% of Norwegians today have a middle name – with Marie, Sophie and Emilie most common for girls, and Alexander and André for boys. While middle names are not very common, double first names are – like how the name Mary Ann, consisting of two first names, is quite common in English. The most popular double first names are Ida Marie and Emma Sophie for girls, and Ole Christian/Kristian and Noah Alexander/Aleksander for boys.

Stop (Giving Your Children Stupid Names)! In the Name of the Law!
Since the 1800s, Norway has upheld strict laws regarding the naming of children to protect children from denigrating names (and thereby misguided, attention-seeking parents). The laws have been quite controversial because it means the very traditional Norwegian name Bjørn (meaning ‘bear’, and therefore the word for an animal) would no longer be permitted. I have heard a rumour that these laws have been relaxed in the last five years, but I have had difficulty finding information about it. Any insights are welcome in the comments area!

What I have been able to find out about naming laws is that there is a government list of ‘acceptable’ names, and parents face fines if they refuse to provide an appropriate name. Harsh perhaps, but at least Norway won’t end up with the Apples, Prince Michael IIs and Moon Units of the US . Under these laws:
• Family names cannot be used as first names (and vice versa) – so women who change their name for marriage cannot carry on their family name by giving it as a first name to their child
• Foreign names that are similar to denigrating or religious words in Norwegian are not allowed – so if you’re a Mexican immigrant who’d always dreamed of naming your son Jesus, tough biscuits
• Unusual or foreign spellings of names are frowned upon.

In fact, in 1998 a Norwegian woman was jailed (right, in her cell) for two years because she refused to pay the fine of US$420 associated with unusually naming her son Gesher. Middle names are not affected by these laws, so Norwegians still get some opportunity to go nuts with naming.

Surnames: Keeping It In The Family (Or Not)
Last names are also regulated. To take a new surname, a person must be able to demonstrate a strong connection to it, by either living in a place with that name or it belonging to a close relative, such as your spouse's name or mother's maiden name. (However, you can’t take your grandmother’s maiden name, as that’s apparently light-years away; you’d have to convince your parent to adopt their mother’s maiden name before you would be allowed to do take it yourself). Rare surnames, shared by fewer than 500 people, are protected. If you want to take such name without obtaining it through birth, adoption or marriage, all of those 500 people have to give you permission to do so. Guh! Why anyone would bother going through the hassle is beyond me.

So back to our old friend, SSB. What are some common Norwegian surnames? According to SSB, the top four surnames in Norway last year were Hansen (used by 56 782 members of Norway’s population of 4.8 million), Johansen, Larsen and Andersen. So I guess couples engaging in illicit extramarital affairs in Norway check-in to seedy hotels as Mr and Mrs Hansen . It is interesting to note that the English equivalents of these names (usually ending instead with -son) are also quite common in Anglo countries.

If you are wondering about the –sen ending, this is a trademark of both Norwegian and Danish surnames. Its popularity is unsurprising, as earlier Norwegian surnames generally had two sources:
• Surnames could be the name of the farm you lived on. So if you moved farms, your surname changed. My boyfriend’s surname is actually the name of a farm that is still in the family.
• Surnames could come from the name of your father. Similar to other cultures, -sen means ‘son of’, and until the end of the 1800s surnames were ‘patronymic’ and not hereditary: a boy with a father named Hans took the surname Hansen, while a girl took the surname Hansdatter (‘daughter’) and kept this name regardless of marriage. This was also the practice in the rest of Scandinavia, but only continues now in Iceland. It is only when this system died out that married women began to take their husband’s surnames. Nonetheless, even today, all the surnames in the top 13 on SSB end in -sen. Conversely, Swedish and Icelandic names typically end in -son. It’s a nice easy to way to figure out where in Scandinavia someone comes from (so you have a better idea of what jokes to make about them ).

A Norwegian By Any Other Name...
So that was everything you wanted to know about Norwegian names, but were afraid to ask. I apologise for the long post, but as I said earlier I find Norwegian names fascinating, so I’ve been researching the topic on and off for a few weeks. It is interesting to know more about the background and popularity (and pronunciation) of the weird and wonderful mix of Norwegian names. And while I respect their goal of protecting Norwegian names (and kids from teasing), to quote Shakespeare, a Norwegian by any other name would... still love frozen pizza and skiing.