Scandinavian family name etymology


Heritable 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. Family names were still used together with primary patronyms, which were used by all social classes. This meant that most families until modern times did not have surnames. Scandinavian patronyms were generally derived from the father's given name with the addition of a suffix meaning 'son' or 'daughter' or by occupation like Møller - naming tradition remained commonly used throughout the Scandinavian countries during the time of surname formation.
Forms of the patronymic suffixes include: -son, -sen, -fen, -søn, -ler, -zen, -zon/zoon, and -ssøn .

Denmark

The most common Danish family name surnames are patronymic and end in -sen; for example Rasmussen, originally meaning "son of Rasmus". Descendants of Danish or Norwegian immigrants to the United States frequently have similar names ending in the suffix "-sen" or have changed the spelling to "-son".
Approximately one-third of the Danish population bear one of the ten most common surnames. More than two-thirds have a patronym ending in -sen in their full name. Many of these patronymics are, however, very rare, local or testimony of unusual descent, e.g. Heilesen from Northern Jutland, Holdensen and Boldsen from the former Duchy of Schleswig or Common etymological classes of surnames are occupational and artisans often Germanized names. Naming acts applying to all citizens were issued 1771 and in 1828. The rural population only reluctantly gave up the traditional primary patronyms. Several naming acts replaced the first; in 1856, 1904, 1961, 1981, 2005. The result of the first act was that most people took a patronymic surname as their heritable family name, with the overwhelming dominance of a few surnames as a consequence. Later acts have attempted to motivate people to change to surnames that would allow safer identification of individuals.
In the table, the top surnames in Denmark are listed as of 1971 and 2012. The general tendency over the past century has been to give up the commonest names and adopt less frequently-used ones.
RankSurnameNumber of bearers 1971Number of bearers 2012TypeEtymology
1Jensen368,631264,824patronymicson of Jens
2Nielsen349,126264,159patronymicson of Niels
3Hansen297,937220,956patronymicson of Hans
4Pedersen203,426166,417patronymicson of Peder
5Andersen188,359161,379patronymicson of Anders
6Christensen159,943121,147patronymicson of Christen
7Larsen148,214118,144patronymicson of Lars
8Sørensen139,111113,207patronymicson of Søren
9Rasmussen117,35596,250patronymicson of Rasmus
10Jørgensen110,13289,846patronymicson of Jørgen
11Petersen130,23681,250patronymicson of Peter
12Madsen76,44165,222patronymicson of Mads
13Kristensen58,99061,274patronymicson of Kristen
14Olsen65,19449,091patronymicson of Ole
15Thomsen40,18039,473patronymicson of Thomas
16Christiansen45,98437,493patronymicson of Christian
17Poulsen36,54432,526patronymicson of Poul
18Johansen36,47031,517patronymicson of Johan
19Møller31,64530,321occupationalmiller
20Johnsen28,66024,787patronymicson of Jon

Norway

The most common Norwegian surnames were originally patronymic, commonly ending with the suffixes "-ssen", "-sson", "-sdatter", "-sdotter" which is the genitive s plus the word sen or son for son or datter or dotter for daughter. The genitive s was often dropped; compare Hanssen and Hansen. In 1923, it was ordered by law that each family should have a single, hereditary last name. Surnames derived from placenames commonly originated as farm names. Most families took a patronymic name, but some adopted a farm name. Today, the patronymic names are increasingly being left for the toponyms; 22.4% of the Norwegian population had a "-sen"-name in 2009, while the share is down to 18.4% for the newborns of 2009.
The most common Norwegian surnames would include many names which originated as farm names:
Bakke/Bakken, Berg/Berge, Dahl/Dal, Haugen/Haugan, Lie, Moen, or Rud.
The listing of 20 most common Norwegian surnames:
RankSurnameNumber of bearers 2012TypeEtymology
1Hansen54,433patronymicson of Hans
2Johansen51,136patronymicson of Johan
3Olsen50,655patronymicson of Ole
4Larsen38,510patronymicson of Lars
5Andersen37,630patronymicson of Anders
6Pedersen35,688patronymicson of Peder
7Nilsen35,435patronymicson of Nils
8Kristiansen23,910patronymicson of Kristian
9Jensen23,318patronymicson of Jens
10Karlsen21,677patronymicson of Karl
11Johnsen20,964patronymicson of John
12Pettersen20,466patronymicson of Petter
13Eriksen19,351patronymicson of Erik
14Berg18,228landscapemountain or hill
15Haugen14,467landscapehill or mound
16Hagen14,202landscapeenclosed pasture
17Johannessen13,539patronymicson of Johannes
18Andreassen12,218patronymicson of Andreas
19Jacobsen12,016patronymicson of Jacob
20Halvorsen11,614patronymicson of Halvor

Sweden

The most common surnames in Sweden are originally patronymic. Family names ending with the suffix "sson" are the most common names in Sweden. In 1901, the Names Adoption Act was passed, which abolished the patronymic practice. From 1901, everyone had to have a family name that was passed down to the next generation.
Many family names consist of items from nature, for example Lind/Lindberg, Berg/Bergkvist, Alström/Ahlström, or Dahl/Dahlin. Sometimes the first part of such a composite name refers to the family's place of origin e.g. the Strindberg family originating from Strinne; the second part being just ornamental. Families also frequently have military-oriented names such as Skarpsvärd, Sköld and Stolt. Those names were originally assigned to soldiers under the military allotment system in effect from the 16th century. As in Denmark, the clergy Latinized their names up to about the 18th century, e.g. Linnaeus. Due to the greater diversity of these names each specific name is less common than most patronymic names.
The listing of 20 most commonly Swedish surnames as of December 31, 2012. Different spellings are included in every name but the name is presented by the most common spelling:
RankSurnameNumber of bearers 2012TypeEtymology
1Andersson251,621patronymicson of Anders
2Johansson251,495patronymicson of Johan
3Karlsson223,151patronymicson of Karl
4Nilsson171,360patronymicson of Nils
5Eriksson147,514patronymicson of Erik
6Larsson124,686patronymicson of Lars
7Olsson114,280patronymicson of Ola
8Persson107,911patronymicson of Per
9Svensson101,834patronymicson of Sven
10Gustafsson97,536patronymicson of Gustaf
11Pettersson96,011patronymicson of Petter
12Jonsson73,869patronymicson of Jon
13Jansson50,170patronymicson of Jan
14Hansson43,926patronymicson of Hans
15Bengtsson34,302patronymicson of Bengt
16Jönsson32,249patronymicson of Jöns
17Lindberg27,533landscapelinden + mountain
18Jakobsson26,793patronymicson of Jakob
19Magnusson26,562patronymicson of Magnus
20Olofsson26,424patronymicson of Olof