Names

Long before our son was born, my husband and I were in constant disagreement over what his name should be.  I wanted a Biblical name - he wanted a traditional one. 

In Norway, it’s customary to name the first born after the paternal grandfather.  The second born son gets the name of the maternal grandfather and the girls likewise get named after their grandmothers.  I figured our son was already going to be saddled with a Norwegian last name, and since we were living in America, why name the kid something like Halvor?

My father-in-law was born Halvor Gunderson Strand.  His name followed tradition as he was named after his mother’s father because he was the second born son.  His “middle name,” which Norwegians actually refer to as their last name, is the name of his father, since he is indeed, Gunder’s son. 

What we American’s think of as his last name, is actually his address.  So he was known as Halvor, Gunder’s son who lives at the beach, because that’s what “strand” means in Norwegian.  The farm names in Norway always depict some geographic location where they are situated so it’s possible to tell one Halvor Gunderson from another, as there’s a good chance there are many in the area with the exact same name.

When Halvor’s family moved from the farm near the beach to a farm on a “harvested hill,” their “last name” changed from Strand to Slaatthaug.  This was how it was done in Norway for centuries – people’s names changed when they moved to a different farm because their name identified exactly who they were.

In 1923 however, the Norwegian government realized it was too difficult to keep track of people, based on this naming convention/tradition, so they made a law that said everyone had to keep whatever their name was at that time, and even if they moved, they shouldn’t change it, so that tradition died out.

First names are still recycled over and over again in Norway but the middle name tradition has also died out.  It’s most common now in Norway to take the mother’s maiden name as the child’s middle name.

Another tradition that’s also died out is naming the newest family member after the last one that died.  I’ve seen birth records for families that had four children, all with the same first name because the first three died.

Up until twenty years ago, all baby names had to be submitted to the Norwegian government for approval before a birth certificate was issued.  It was thought that having an unusual first name might be detrimental to the child, so conformity and standardization was encouraged.  But with traditional first names like Dagfinn, Roar, Oddrun, Bent, Birger, Frode, and Snørre, ya gotta wonder what they were thinking.