"What's in a name?" - famous phrase from the poem of A.S. Pushkin. True, he answered this question very modestly, assuming that sooner or later it will die, it will be forgotten as "the sound of the night in the forest is deaf." But, fortunately, the Russian classic was mistaken. And at the expense of himself, and about the concept of "name" as a whole, since a lot is hidden in it. What exactly? Beautiful and Norwegian surnames and names will tell us about this and not only.
National characteristic
Have A.P. Chekhov's wonderful phrase that they have not yet invented such an object that would not be suitable for a Jewish family. Well, Anton Pavlovich, as always, is ironic and accurate! But seriously, any name or surname is directly related to nationality. After all, by calling the child the name of his people, the parent, as it were, passes him the national gene, which will connect him not only with his close ancestors, but also with the whole people, its history and culture. This is probably why fifty percent of Norwegian citizens have traditional Norwegian names, and the other half are pan-European. The latter are usually borrowed from the church calendar.
Value
Each name, surname has its own meaning. What or with whom are Norwegian surnames connected? In ancient times, many peoples did not distinguish between a nickname and the name itself. The ancient Scandinavians who inhabited the territory of modern Norway at that time were no exception. Over time, people stopped using nicknames such as "Evil Eye", "Bull Bone", "Wolf's Mouth" and so on. However, it cannot be said that this trend has completely disappeared.
For example, many modern Norwegian surnames and names are associated with totem animals:
- Bjørn - a bear;
- Bernhard - a brave bear;
- Bjørgulv - a combination of two words bjarga - to protect, store and úlfr - a wolf;
- Chickadee - a tit;
- Olva - the wolf;
- Svane is a swan.
It is impossible not to mention the surnames formed on the basis of nicknames and associated with the surrounding nature:
- Wind - wind;
- Blizzard - Blizzard;
- Spruce - spruce and many others.
And finally, a no less numerous group is made up of Norwegian names denoting human occupations, personal characteristics:
- Stian - traveler, wanderer;
- Helge - sacred, holy;
- Henrik - powerful, leader, ruler;
- Olve - lucky, happy;
- Ottar - warrior, protector, inspiring fear, horror;
- Bodvar is an alert, cautious warrior;
- Boye - messenger, messenger and others.
National domain
It is interesting to note that until the beginning of the twentieth century, most Scandinavians did not have any names at all. Instead, middle names were used. That is why many Norwegian surnames (masculine) end in son, sen, which literally means “son”. For example, among the most common, you can find such options as:
- Hansen - son of Hans;
- Karlsen - son of Karl;
- Larsen is the son of Lars and others.
As for women, the word datter is the ending - the daughter. For example, Norwegian female surnames may be:
- Anderdatter - daughter Andre;
- Johandatter- Johan's daughter;
- Jendatter is the daughter of Ian and many others.
Another feature of the names of the indigenous inhabitants of Norway is that they can consist of two or more words. The second part is, as a rule, such lexical units as:
- bunn is the bottom;
- felt - field;
- hennes mann - her husband;
- rock - rock, stone;
- skog - forest;
- master - master.
Here we can say that all of the above names have a so-called national domain - something that helps to determine which person comes from which nation, nation.
