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It’s Off Topic Tuesday again already, and this week I think I want to talk about something that my followers might find interesting: the naming system in Iceland.
Iceland has a really unique naming system in the sense that we don’t have “family names” here, we use something called patronyms. So let’s say your father’s name is Jón, that means that if you’re a girl your last name will be Jónsdóttir (daughter of Jón) or if you’re a boy your last name will be Jónsson (son of Jón).
So again, we don’t use “family names” here that get passed down from generation to generation, every last name is a unique personal title that speaks of your parentage. Although there are some exceptions, a few Icelanders do have “family names” but this is rare, since back in the day when Iceland was still a Danish colony / shortly after being liberated from Denmark some upper class people would have Danish family names as a sign of social status, but that’s also been dying out the longer Iceland is no longer a Danish colony. You’ll also see that in the older generations they’ll use Danish words since that used to be a sign of class, but the younger generation doesn’t really do that anymore (instead the younger generation uses a lot of English words since now that’s the cool trendy thing to do).
This has been known to sometimes cause problems when Icelandic families travel abroad. Let’s say you have a family of four: a mom, a dad, a daughter, and a son. Everyone in this family would have a different last name, and this has been known to confuse customs agents abroad. Sometimes they even suspect trafficking when both kids have a different last name that doesn’t match either parent. Luckily this is rare, but it’s still recommended for Icelandic parents to carry birth certificates when traveling abroad, just in case.
Now you might be wondering, what about kids who don’t have a dad? We do also sometimes use matronyms here, although they’re much rarer to use than patronyms. Probably at least 90% of the Icelandic population uses a patronym, but of course there are lesbian couples who have children, or cases where the father isn’t in the picture.
I did also have a teacher who talked about how back in the olden days it was traditional in fishing villages to use matronyms instead of patronyms. That’s because usually the father was gone out at sea for months at a time + deaths by drowning were so common for fisherman that the women could become widowed at a moment’s notice, so this resulted in the fisherman’s wives being quite independent and often using matronyms for their children.
The same teacher also once said “back in the old days if you had a matronym this meant your father was a bad man, but today it could just mean that your parents are feminists.” Because yes, matronyms have also been growing in popularity the past few decades for feminist reasons, even if the father is still present and in the picture. What’s most common in progressive / feminist couples though is using both a matronym and a patronym. So let’s say your mother’s name is Sigrún and your father’s name is Jón, if your parents wanted to be progressive they might give you the last name “Sigrúnardóttir Jónsdóttir” or “Sigrúnarson Jósson.”
However, Iceland still has its fair share of staunch traditionalists who don’t like it if you use a matronym unless absolutely necessary (like the father not being in the picture) because patronyms are more “traditional” and “true to Icelandic culture”. I do know at least one woman who her and her husband gave their kids both a matronym and a patronym to be progressive / feminist, and she’s said that this made a lot of her extended family and in-laws angry for “desecrating Icelandic culture and tradition” instead of just using a patronym. I’m hoping this attitude changes with time, since I see no reason not to equally credit the mother when it comes to naming a child.
Now the thing about Iceland’s naming traditions is that it may be unique now, but actually thousands of years ago this wasn’t so unique. You might be familiar with English last names like “Jackson” or “Johnson”, and that’s because in other parts of Europe last names were also personal titles, not a family name passed down through generations. That’s also why you have English family names like “Smith” or “Weaver” because having a last name as your personal title could have either referenced your parentage, or your profession, or any number of things really.
At some point most of the rest of Europe switched to family names that get passed down through the generations, and this was for the sake of making record keeping easier. Iceland was just one of the few holdouts and never really made the switch. Maybe it’s because Iceland is so far away from the rest of Europe that it was forgotten when the change was implemented, or maybe it’s because the population here is small enough that you can still easily keep record without having to use family names.
Either way, Iceland is one of the few places to have preserved a much older and more ancient naming tradition.
This can be quickly tied into the theme of my blog actually, because this means we don’t use terms like “Mister” or “Misses” even in highly formal situations. Even if you’re a doctor or a teacher you are referred to by your first name, since your last name is just a personal title which says who your parents are.
Something I forgot to mention, but probably goes without saying, is that there is obviously no culture of changing your last name when you get married in Iceland. Regardless of marital status, you are still the daughter of Jón or Sigrún or whoever, so why change that when you get married?
I have encountered quite a few women of foreign origin living in Iceland, who are married to an Icelandic man, and still insisted on taking his last name when they got married. I’m not going to police anyone’s decision on their last name or say that someone’s not allowed to do that. However, I won’t lie, it does weird me out a little bit. It feels like you’re saying you’re now your husband’s brother :/
Another thing I forgot to mention, RE: the staunch traditionalists who will give parents crap for using a matronym because it’s not “true to Icelandic culture”.
The thing about that is, back during Iceland’s settlement period (which you might call the viking days or old Norse society) it wasn’t all that uncommon if a child’s mother was from a more important family, or had a higher social class than the father, to give the children matronyms instead.
A famous example of this is Loki, the figure from Norse mythology. You may or may not know this but Loki was frequently referred to as Laufeyjarson, and Laufey is a woman’s name. That’s because Loki’s father was a giant (jötunn) named Fárbauti, while his mother was the goddess Laufey. Obviously a goddess is going to be of higher social standing and greater importance than a giant, so Loki was often referred to by a matronym.
I am tempted to say that this is a case of social progress not necessarily being a steady march forward. However, it’s not necessarily progressive, it just means that during this time period class power dynamics took precedent over patriarchy in some cases, like naming conventions. However, at some point in the past millennia, patriarchy took precedent over class power dynamics, at least in regard to naming conventions.
Nowadays of course if someone has a matronym it has nothing to do with the parents’ class / social standing, and is instead going to be because of one of the reasons discussed in the original post (lesbian parents / father not in the picture / parents just trying to be progressive)
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