{"id":2328,"date":"2017-04-21T20:53:17","date_gmt":"2017-04-21T20:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2328"},"modified":"2017-04-21T20:56:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T20:56:07","slug":"your-name-is-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/your-name-is-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Your name is what?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hva heter du?<\/b> (What\u2019s your name?) Jeg heter\u2026 <\/b>(My name is\u2026) Talking about navn <\/b>(name\/s) is important when making new friends. Let\u2019s look at Norwegian naming traditions!<\/p>\n

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One of the most popular names in Norway. (Photo courtesy of emma.buckley at Flickr<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ola<\/b> & Kari Nordmann<\/b> are like the Norwegian versions of Uncle Sam \u2013 a man and a woman representing the \u201dtypical\u201d nordmann<\/b> (Norwegian). Like\u00a0<\/span>all nordmenn<\/b>, they have a fornavn<\/b> (first name) followed by an etternavn<\/b> (last name). The etternavn<\/b> is the one to look for in a printed list \u2013 the Internet, of course, doesn\u2019t really care which name you google! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

When two people gifter seg<\/b> [yeefter say] (marry) in Norway, the woman traditionally takes her husband\u2019s etternavn<\/b>. This is still very common in Norway, even if there are lots of other options now (the woman keeping her last name, the man taking hers, same-sex marriage etc.) Some people choose to keep their old family name as a mellomnavn<\/b> (middle name). Let\u2019s suppose Kari<\/b> had the last name Fjell<\/b> before marrying Ola Nordmann<\/b> \u2013 it would then be possible for her to call herself Kari Fjell Nordmann<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The 10 most popular<\/a> jentenavn<\/b> (girls\u2019 names) in 2016 were:<\/p>\n

Nora, Emma, Sara, Sofie, Sofia, Maja, Olivia, Ella, Ingrid, Emilie<\/b><\/p>\n

And the corresponding guttenavn<\/b> (boys\u2019 names) were:<\/p>\n

William, Oskar, Lucas, Mathias, Filip, Oliver, Jakob, Emil, Noah, Aksel<\/b><\/p>\n

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Freestyle skier Kari Traa<\/strong> has a really stereotypical Norwegian name. (Photo courtesy of Jarvin at Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

If those names were not as exotic as you had hoped for, there are still many, many traditional names in use, including Gro,\u00a0 <\/span>Guro, Gunnhild, Aslaug, Bj\u00f8rg, \u00c5sne, Ingvil, Hilde, Vilde, Jorunn, Siri, Silje, Rannveig, Solveig, Synn\u00f8ve<\/b> for women and Olav, Harald, H\u00e5kon, Guttorm, Gunnar, Aslak, Atle, Bjarne, B\u00f8rge, Sverre, Sigurd, Finn, Geir, Stig, Stian, Kjetil, \u00d8ystein <\/b>for men\u2026 Lots of these were used in vikingtida<\/b> (the Viking Age), too!<\/p>\n

Fun fact:<\/i> Don\u2019t be surprised if you meet a Norwegian called Per Olav<\/b> or Anne Elisabeth<\/b>! Double names are a very old \u201dtrend\u201d. Sometimes a child gets a name from each grandparent (of the same sex) \u2013 for example, maybe Per Olav<\/b>\u2019s two granddads were called Olav <\/b>and Per Isak<\/b>.<\/p>\n

There are different kinds of etternavn<\/b> in Norway:<\/p>\n