{"id":608,"date":"2010-10-21T02:10:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=608"},"modified":"2010-10-21T02:10:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T02:10:31","slug":"norwegian-last-names-norske-etternavn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/norwegian-last-names-norske-etternavn\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian last names-norske etternavn"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may wonder why so many people with Scandinavian heritage have an etternavn <\/strong>(last name or surname) that ends in ‘son’ <\/em>or ‘sen.’ <\/em> There is a very simple answer and you will be much less perplexed to know the story behind the billion Johnsons<\/em> of Olsons<\/em> you know. \u00a0Ok, maybe you don’t know that many, but can honestly say I know dozens of people with these etternavn<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Norske etternavn<\/strong> are som regel <\/strong>(as a rule) derived from either a man way back in the family history tree or a location. \u00a0My etternavn<\/strong> is Bergeson<\/em>. \u00a0My tippoldefar<\/strong> (great great grandfather) was named Berge<\/em>. \u00a0His son, my oldefar (great grandfather) was Ragnvald<\/em>. \u00a0His full navn<\/strong> was Ragnvald Bergeson<\/em> because he was the s\u00f8nn<\/strong> (son) of Berge<\/strong>. \u00a0Women would take the name of their father and add ‘datter’<\/em> to the end to form their etternavn<\/strong>. \u00a0Makes perfect sense, right? \u00a0Well, not really if there is to be an easy system of categorizing people into families for census data or taxation purposes because everyone would have a different etternavn<\/strong>! \u00a0A man would have one name and a woman another and their children yet another. \u00a0Super confusing if you ask me.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u00b4t until 1923 that it became law that every family was to have one and the same etternavn<\/strong>. \u00a0Of course, a lot of etternavn<\/strong> died at that point and now a small number of etternavn<\/strong> are extremely common and der har du det<\/strong>! (there you have it!)- that\u00b4s why there are so many Johnsons<\/em> and Olsons<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Both\u00a0‘son’<\/em> and\u00a0‘sen’ <\/em>mean the same thing, ‘son of’<\/em> and actually a third ending\u00a0‘s\u00f8n’<\/em> is also common in Norway.Still today there are norske<\/strong> etternavn<\/strong> used here in the U.S. that end in ‘son’<\/em> but the ‘sen’ ending is much more common, which explains why Norwegians always ask me why my last name ends in ‘son’<\/em> if I have norske forfedre<\/strong> (Norwegian forefathers). \u00a0I plead the 5th.<\/p>\n

Many Norwegians that emigrated to the U.S. in the 19th and early 20th centuries changed their name from the ‘son’ ending to the ‘sen’<\/em> ending upon the request of immigration officials who wanted to make navn<\/em> sound as Anglicized as possible without changing the meaning. \u00a0Don’t ask me why then, my oldefar<\/strong> was Ragnvald Duesund<\/em> back in Norway and became Ragnvald BergesOn<\/em> upon entering the U.S. \u00a0Who knows….either way, I’m happy my etternavn is Bergeson<\/em> and not Duesund<\/em>. \u00a0People have enough trouble with my fornavn<\/em> (first name) Kari<\/em> (pronounced car-ee, not care-ee), so I don’t need more with my last name, although it often gets butchered as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may wonder why so many people with Scandinavian heritage have an etternavn (last name or surname) that ends in ‘son’ or ‘sen.’ There is a very simple answer and you will be much less perplexed to know the story behind the billion Johnsons of Olsons you know. \u00a0Ok, maybe you don’t know that many…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,8,913],"tags":[12037,12036,12035],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-language","category-traditions","tag-hereditary-names","tag-norske-etternavn","tag-norwegian-last-names"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t