Family names and name suffixes up to the 1700s
From far back in time we know that people had a name, and often an additional name (byname) or suffix. The latter are descriptive names, sometimes describing the place they resided or their occupational title. These suffixes in time often became surnames, when a family started using the name regularly. Family names and surnames used by kinsmen were usually patrilineal and heritable.
The patronymic
Bynames were added to a person’s first name, or sometimes they were used alone, and they correspond to nicknames and certain types of family name in modern times. These could be used as suffixes in addition to a genuine patronymic. The patronymic (also known as a patronym) is a surname derived from one’s father’s (or a predecessor’s) given name, often with the ending -sen or -datter (son of, or daughter of) in Norway.
Genuine patronymics, also known as primary patronymics, are created from the person’s father’s first given name, and thus unite the siblings in a family. The word matronymic is the corresponding type of name derived from the mother’s name. A secondary patronymic, or heritable patronymic, was originally a primary patronymic which was inherited by the following generations and therefore became a family surname, for example names ending in -sen in Norway.
Bynames
Bynames have been known from our earliest history. In the Norwegian sagas we know of patronymics (Olav Haraldsson, son of Harald), names derived from a person’s place of residence (Hårek from Tjøtta), or place of origin (Harald Grenski, from Grenland), or occupation (Sigvat Skald, Sigvat the bard), from a characteristic (Olav Digre, Olav the stout; Olav den hellige, St. Olav) or from an event (Asbjørn Selsbane, he had killed another Viking called Tore Sel). This type of moniker was used in part by the person himself, in part by others, or sometimes only after a person’s death. An example of a byname being used by a later generation is the son of Tore Hunds (Tore the dog’s) granddaughter, who was called Sigurd Hund.
In the age of the sagas, there were some clan sobriquets which were not reckoned as being proper bynames or family names, such as Ynglingeætta, Bjarkøyætta and Hårfagreætta.
Family names
Until about 1500, bynames were seldom heritable. In the previous three centuries, about 40 bynames in ruling families may have been used as family names, e.g. Darre and Bolt. But these often disappeared from use after a few generations.
The first sign of family names becoming more widespread in Norway was when the aristocracy took names in the 17th and 18th centuries, e.g. from their coats of arms, such as Skaktavl (chessboard) and Galtung (wild boar, called Galte before they received a knighthood), or from adaptions to their previous name, such as Werenskiold (skiold meaning shield) from Wernersen (a patronymic meaning “son of Werner”).
During the same period, it became customary for bynames to be inherited as family names among the upper classes and the military. These were often foreign names, especially from Danish and German, and were in use among immigrant officials, craftsmen and traders, but also by Norwegians who had been in Denmark or abroad to study, or on military service. These could be place names, such as Astrup, Cappelen or Angell; or names of inhabitants derived from place names (Holst, Friis and Beyer); occupational names such as Møller and Müller (miller), Bødker (cooper), Fleischer (butcher), Meyer (mayor or public official) and Richter (judge). They could also be German patronymics (the equivalents of Norwegian -sen names: Martens, Pavels and Irgens); bynames derived from a characteristic, such as Lange (tall) and Rasch (speedy or quick). Some names were purely formed from fantasy, such as names from flora and fauna, e.g. Birch and Bøgh (beech); from the seasons, Høst, Sommer and Winther (autumn, summer and winter) or from colours, e.g. Brun (brown). Some names were translated into Latin (or Greek) versions, e.g. Arctander (Norwegian, arctic dweller) and Ursin (bear).
In rural villages, up to about 1900
Up to the latter half of the 19th century, it was unusual for the common people to have heritable surnames. When their names were recorded in documents, patronymics or farm names were used. In official documents such as census records, parish records or court records, people’s names had been recorded as early as the 16th century with the patronymic as a surname or byname, and with the name of the farm or place of residence (with a preposition in some parts of the country) as an address or the name of their property. But in less official documents, and in taxation records, Christian names were often recorded with the place of residence and no patronymic.
A study of the use of surnames in a selection of rural areas in the southwestern areas of Norway in the 1801 census, shows only 2,2 % of the population recorded with heritable surnames. These were most commonly foreign names used by the upper classes. And the same was true of the cities at that time.
For centuries, and up to the beginning of the 20th century, it was usual for people to be known locally by bynames in rural areas in most parts of the country. These bynames could be derived from the farm name, e.g. Bakke-Per, Nils (i) Bakken, the father’s Christian name before the person’s own Christian name, Sjur-Ola, a patronymic from the father’s Christian name, Per Hanså, Eli Hansdåt and similar names (especially in the Northern half of the country), occupational names, Per Smed (smith) or names derived from a personal characteristic, Blind-Anders (blind Anders). These were the names people knew and used colloquially, not the official written names.
In the cities
Use of heritable surnames started in the cities and usually among the higher echelons of society. This increased from the 16th century onwards. Naming patterns in the cities up to about 1900 are known only though a few local studies.
At the end of the 1600s, about a quarter of the population in Bergen had family surnames, especially German names. Many of these disappeared later, so it seems that not all of these had been passed on to later generations as regular surnames. The remaining three-quarters of the population were recorded without any surname.
Early in the 1800s, less than 4/10 of the population in Bergen, and ¼ in Kristiansand and Fredrikstad, had family surnames. But many of these were not firmly established for several generations. Most of the surnames in these ports were foreign, especially German, but there were also a few Norwegian farm or place names, or secondary patronymics. The rest of the population was recorded either with a primary patronymic, or without a surname.
In 1865, there were almost 95% family names in Trondheim, 15-20% of these were inherited -sen names (secondary patronymics), and under 80% had other heritable surnames. In Fredrikstad about half the population had heritable surnames, roughly equal numbers of secondary patronymics and other types of family name. In Tromsø, 31% of women had heritable surnames, and just as many had secondary patronymics as other surnames. Around 1900, most city dwellers had regular surnames. Many of these surnames were originally patronymics which had become inherited (secondary patronymics) by both men and unmarried women. Primary patronymics disappeared for married women.
Names ending in -sen (patronymics) from the 1800s onwards
During the 1800s there was mass migration to the cities, and people’s primary patronymic became passed down from generation to generation, thus becoming a secondary patronymic. We can see the beginnings of this trend in the 1865 census of Norway. This custom made them resemble city dwellers rather than rustics, and followed the trend in Denmark.
The increase in the use of secondary patronymics from 1865 to 1900 in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø probably corresponded to the growth in the population.
Sen-names were the most common form of heritable surname around 1900, with around 50% in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Tromsø. In these cities, Olsen was the most common surname, roughly 4-7% of the population, and Hansen the next with 2-5%.
After 1900, the proportion of sen-names in the cities has probably been unaltered some places and slightly reduced other places. Other names have increased due to migration to the cities, especially surnames derived from farm and place names. The proportion of names ending in -sen in Trondheim appears to have been reduced from about 45-50% in 1900 to about 30% in 1910. In Bergen, the number was halved between 1900 and 1940.
Since we do not have statistics for the whole country, we cannot ascertain to which extent the great changes in surnames after 1900 was caused by people changing names or moving out of the cities. A combination of these factors is most probable. In addition, the use of surnames could vary from document to document for the same person, either due to the information they themselves gave at various times, or due to imprecise standards for recording personal data. Despite these variable factors, the same tendency for the rise and decline of patronymics is present in the sources which have been examined here.
One important source of information on surnames in the cities is address directories, which were published for many of the larger cities from the second half of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. They included information on heads of households and single adults. From address directories for the larger cities, we can see that Olsen was by far the most common surname in 1900, and that the percentage of persons by the name of Olsen has decreased since then.
The first nationwide census from about 1975 shows the following statistics for the most common patronymics: 74,808 Hansen, 68,761 Olsen and 63,872 Johansen. As of January 1st 2000, the corresponding numbers were: 61,433 Hansen, 56,555 Olsen and 56,012 Johansen.
Each of the two or three most common -sen surnames is now used by only 1.3-1.4 % of the population. In most cities, the percentage is about 1-1.5%. The difference between the cities and rural areas has mostly disappeared, probably due to migration but also because non-permanent residents in villages may have taken sen-names. The county Sogn og Fjordane with only 0.4% Olsen, and the three northernmost counties with between 3-4% of the population having the three most common -sen names are the exceptions. In the last example, there may have been less change due to less migration to the area. 24.8% of the total population have names ending in -sen in 1999.
Changes in the distribution of family names and surnames in the 20th century
In rural areas about 1900, one may observe a tendency towards using farm names as surnames, and also inconsistency in the recording of surnames for the same person.
But the tendency from using patronymics which changed from one generation to another, towards using heritable surnames such as farm names is apparent in most types of public document. A study from Frosta (in Nord-Trøndelag) shows that about ¾ were recorded with Christian names and patronymics or only by Christian name in the 1900 census, whereas in 1910 this was down to ¼. The remainder of the population was mainly recorded by farm names or surnames other than patronymics in both censuses.
In land records for the same place, however, there is a larger percentage of farm names and a smaller percentage of -sen names than in the census records. Studies of 8 other municipalities in Southern Norway in the 1900 census show percentages of surnames other than -sen names varying between 7-60% from place to place.
Information about surnames in this transitional period, from the end of the 1800s up to about the 1930s, is dubious since most people and the enumerators/officials didn’t have a precise conception of what constituted a surname. In the 1910 census for Frosta, this uncertainty is evident when over half the population in one ward was recorded with patronymic surnames, while almost no one had them in a neighbouring enumeration area.
Variations in the use of surname for one and the same person by the authorities could include the use of different -sen names (from the person’s father or a predecessor), different farm or smallholding names, as well as different spellings of the same name. This was also the case in the cities. And moving from place to place could even result in a different name being used as a surname.
Names of larger places or villages being used as surnames was most common when a person moved away from the rural area. There were also many people who took or were bestowed with the name of a main farm or property, while they had an informal name in daily use from the dependent smallholding on which they lived. One example of this is a man who was recorded as being named Flåm in the population register, but who himself used the name Melteig from the smallholding where he grew up. This resulted in a court case in Voss municipal court in the 1970s.
Even though occupational titles were for a long time used as bynames, there isn’t as strong a tradition in Norway for creating surnames from occupations, as was usual in many comparable countries.
The introduction of heritable surnames was a gradual process. Up to 1979, when new legislation was passed, there were still people in Norway who had no regular surname. The use of different names for the same person in public documents was not unusual. Not being registered in the National Registry of Norway or in parish records with the name in daily use could result in a person losing the right to use a name previously used as a surname in his/her family.
Various spellings
The orthography of place names and farm names in Norway usually followed Danish language patterns until the end of the 19th century, such as Qvam, Wiig, Dahl, Lie, Moe, Myhr, Sexe, Semb and prefixes/suffixes in names such as Løv- and -tvedt. The official names have been adapted to suit Norwegian pronunciation in land taxation records and in other public documents, e.g. Vik, Dal, Mo, Sem, Lauv- and -tveit.
Surnames, and later family names, followed the older spellings of farm and place names despite the changes in land records and general changes in Norwegian orthography, e.g. Aa becoming Å. The spelling of people’s names was usually according to the way officials (i.e. priests and sheriffs) wrote them. Local pronunciation and the written language were seemingly regarded as two quite separate modes.
And spellings of the same person’s name could also vary, partly due to the person’s or the enumerator’s or official’s poor mastery of spelling, and partly due to individual preference. The use of forms of spelling which deviated from normal Norwegian orthography, was usually due to these previously having been the most well-known spellings. In addition, it could be useful to have a name which looked different, like Eyde and other names with roots in older forms of the language.
We can observe the consequences of this in the surnames of today. As of December 1st 1993, the incidence of these variations on surnames (with the same pronunciation) was as follows: 1467 Mo and 6866 Moe; 106 Dal and 11 837 Dahl; 4489 Vik, 74 Vig, 50 Viig, 25 Viik, 20 Wig, 845 Wik, 1193 Wiig and 2249 Wiik; 208 Eeg, 441 Eek, 851 Eik and 565 Ek; 3786 Tveit and 1954 Tvedt. The trend would seem to favour neither Danish nor Norwegian orthography.
Compound surnames are often of more recent origin, and have therefore been less affected by Danish spelling norms. While there were 643 Myhr and 30 Myr, the incidence of compound names containing these elements in the same register was 77 different surnames beginning with Myr and only 19 beginning with Myhr.
Aa (pronounced aw) was changed to the Nordic letter Å in the orthographic reform of 1917. And yet there were 137 different surnames in 1993 (of various origins) starting with Å and 332 with Aa, e.g. 280 Ås and 5918 Aas. A frequent example of names with aa or å in the name was: 1401 Waage, 462 Vaage, 1205 Våge and 97 Wåge (all pronounced the same, the W being pronounced as a V).
Variations in the spelling of names with the suffix -sen within the same family have also occurred until well into the 20th century, e.g. Christensen and Kristensen; Nielsen, Nilsen and Nilssen. In one edition of a city directory there could be far more Nielsen spellings than Nilsen, while in a later edition there were many more Nilsen.
Inconsistency in the use and spelling of surnames as described above, results in it almost being a matter of chance which variant has been recorded in public documents.
Changing surnames
The decline in the use of -sen names shows that people have preferred other surnames. The main reason was probably a wish to select a name that wasn’t as common. One line of argumentation for the use of farm names is that this has been a tradition in Norway. A lower percentage of -sen names among middle names rather than surnames also indicates a preference for other names, cf. chapter 6.
In 1923, the Ministry of Justice licenced the use of 303 family names (the number of cases, not the number of persons with each name). In the early sixties, there were about a thousand cases a year. Up to about 1964 these were mostly new names (newly constructed names or names not complying with the general rules), surnames from stepfathers or foster parents, or surnames in everyday use which were not recorded in the official population register. There were many cases of newly married women wishing to keep their maiden names; and, as a result of the increase in divorces, more women wished to revert to their maiden names.
Early in the 1980s, there were over 10,000 changes of surname approved annually, excluding reverting to maiden names. The number of changes has increased since then, but the process has been simplified so that in most cases one can fill out the appropriate forms at the registry office.
This huge increase in recent decades is mostly due to women and children changing surnames after the breakup of a marriage. But many of the cases approved nowadays by the county governors are for immigrants who wish to alter their surnames. They may have been assigned names when they were first registered in Norway that weren’t in keeping with their native traditions, had a poor transcription to European letters, or a surname that was not practicable in Norway.
In the 1940s, two lists were published with potential surnames, about 3,700 names. Several of these suggestions no longer exist as surnames.
Women’s surnames and family names
Until well into the 19th century, Norwegian women kept their patronymic or family name all their lives. In rural areas, colloquial use of surnames or bynames could vary to some extent with the person’s place of abode, with a man and his wife, for example, both having the farm or smallholding where they lived as a byname locally.
Towards the end of the 19th century, it became more common, especially in the larger towns, for women to be recorded with their husbands’ surnames in official documents. The trend started among the upper classes. In Bergen and Kristiansand, 98% of women were recorded with their maiden names (often patronymics, ending in -datter) in 1801. In the same census no women in Fredrikstad had their husband’s surname, while the 1865 census shows about half the women married to men of higher social standing (mostly merchants, clergymen, public officials and ships’ captains) and only 1/6 of those married to working class men, had taken their husbands’ surnames.
By the time the Personal Name Act was passed in 1923, it was the norm in most of the country for women to take their husbands’ surnames on marriage, but proportionally less in rural areas.
Given names
Given names, in the age of the sagas, were often compounded from one or two words (e.g. Sigfrid – SIG meaning victory and FRID meaning good-looking), but it is believed that the meaning of a person’s name became less important about a thousand years ago.
Many ancient names are still in use, sometimes in slightly different versions (Øyvind/Even, Sigfrid/Sigrid/Siri). A large number of biblical names, especially from the New Testament and the names of saints, were adopted in the centuries leading up to the reformation, some of them in Norwegian versions, such as Johannes/Jon, Peter/Per, Maria/Mari, Nikolaus/Nils and Katarina/Kari. These biblical names replaced some of the older names, but from the 19th century onwards many of the ancient Viking names have been revived, replacing newer variants and biblical names.
From the end of the 19th century up to the present, many new given names have been adopted, especially from Swedish, German, Danish, French and English. And some family names have become given names. Though it’s often difficult to ascertain the source of inspiration, it would seem that names of the clergy, landowners, merchant classes, and prime ministers may have set the trend: e.g. Monrad, Anker, Selmer and Sverdrup. And in coastal areas in Northern Norway, merchant families like Heitman, Bernhof and Heggelund, as well as innkeepers like Pareli/Parelius and landowners like Angel, have inspired people to use their names, even though they didn’t belong to the local area. Following the trend in other countries, it became common to make girls’ names from boys’ names, and the opposite to a smaller extent, e.g. Petrina, Petra, Karenus and Agdar.
Naming after members of the Norwegian aristocracy and celebrities declined rapidly after the 1923 legislation.
Towards the end of the 20th century, names from non-western immigrants became more common in Norway. In 1999, Mohammad (and variants of this name) was in 8th place as the most popular name of newly born boys in Oslo.
Middle names
The origin of middle names was people’s wish to give additional names as well as usual Christian names and surnames. Before the Name Act of 1964, they were regarded as being a special type of forename. The trend apparently started when additional names became more common among the upper classes in the 17th and 18th centuries. These middle names were often family names from forebears on either side of the family, or from other people one wished to honour.
In Bergen and Kristiansand, the 1801 census shows limited use of middle names among the gentry, mostly those of foreign origin, and most of these were probably family names. Genealogical books from Bergen show marked variations in naming patterns among siblings in the 18th and 19th centuries, indicating that names were not only chosen from close kin.
In Fredrikstad, the use of middle names was not widespread in 1801, and evenly divided between patronymics and other family names. Patronymics were more common among the middle classes, such as artisans and bureaucrats, and were often followed by a name derived from a Norwegian place name. Other family names used as middle names often varied among siblings, as did the choice of given name. Only occasionally was the middle name from the mother’s family name. Naming patterns were often repeated by later generations. By 1865, the use of middle names in Fredrikstad had increased slightly.
We can also learn from sources other than the censuses that middle names could be taken from the extended family, from friends or from celebrities. In the latter half of the 19th century and up until the naming act of 1923, there were examples of celebrities’ names or family names of relatives being used as middle names, then the person in question being called by that name as a forename in daily use, e.g. Nordahl Rolfsen (Johan Nordahl Brun Rolfsen) and Nordahl Grieg (Johan Nordahl Brun Grieg). And in some cases, middle names became the first part of double-barrelled names from the 18th to the early 20th century.
The development in the use of middle names in our time is described in chapter 6. The term “middle name” emerged in the 20th century, and was used in the 1964 legislation. It had previously only been used by Lundh and Arnholm, among others, in comments on legislation.
Ethnic minorities
The Sami and Kven people
Kvens (people of Finnic origin in the Northern parts of Norway) and the Sami people have had the same naming traditions for several centuries. From the end of the 1800s, many of them started using Norwegianized names. It has been difficult to determine to what extent they were forced to do so as a result of naming laws or local persecution, but it is clear that many felt they were pressurized.
It is probable that not a few changed their names due to social pressure and in the hope of being treated more favourably by the authorities, especially from the middle of the 19th century onwards. Norwegian versions of their names have often been recorded in parish records ꟷ partly due to clerical practice, and in many cases without the knowledge of the person himself. This could be in the form of spellings more suited to Norwegian pronunciation, translations of their names, Norwegian place names from the place they lived or patronymics (names ending in -sen) from their father’s first given name.
Random samples from the 1900 census for the Sami areas Karasjok and Kautokeino show that less than 10% of the population there were registered with only -sen names, the majority were registered with a Sami family name, but often in addition to a patronymic.
It’s not uncommon nowadays for people to wish to revert to Sami and Kven family names. These may have been out of official use for several generations of their own ancestry but still be used by kinsmen.
Sami persons were recorded with Norwegian Christian names from the 17th and 18th centuries, and ancient Sami names disappeared from use in parish records and official documents. Nevertheless, Sami versions were used colloquially. And in the last five decades, many people have given their children proper Sami names.
“Forest Finns”
There are people of Finnish descent in Norway with other origins than the Kven people in the North. In the late 16th century and early 17th century, there were Finns who migrated to the forests of central Norway and Sweden. These people were often registered with their Finnish forenames, which were often variants of well-established given names, and with patronymics from their fathers’ Christian names. In addition, they might have been, especially in the oldest records, recorded with their Finnish patrilineal name. The latter were no longer in official use by the 19th century, and these people of Finnish descent used patronymics and Norwegian (or Finnish-inspired) farm names according to Norwegian custom. Thus they adapted to normal Norwegian naming patterns.
In the last two or three decades, some infants have been christened with Finnish forenames, especially Heikki (m.) and Erkki (m.). The Finnish names have traditionally been in everyday use even if the person has had a Norwegian version which was used officially. And in the same period, some people have wished to resurrect their old Finnish family (clan) names, both as middle names and as surnames. This usually requires researching several centuries of written documents, and one can’t count on all the names used by the family having been recorded. Ongoing projects with genealogical research are making this documentation possible. To a certain extent, there is still an oral tradition, especially for nicknames, like Viinikka-Per or Viinikkan. This corresponds to the oral tradition which is described for the whole country, but with Finnish content. There are in addition surnames of Finnish origin which are still in use, such as Hytjanstorp from the Finnish family name Hyttiainen, and Peistorpet from Piesala and Piesainen.
The Romani people (also known as Travellers)
The Romani people came to Scandinavia around the year 1500. Officially, they have had ordinary Norwegian given names and surnames throughout the 20th century, often surnames of the patronymic or place-name type. But amongst themselves, they often use clan names, and these are also used unofficially as middle names when they perform in public. Children’s names, especially their family names, were often altered when they were taken into care in foster-homes in the early 1900s.
Roma people (gypsies)
The Roma people probably have common origins with the Romani people. The Norwegian Roma people came to Scandinavia from the middle of the 19th century. Ancient clan names are in use, but some people have changed to ordinary Norwegian names at their own request.
Legislation
Before the Personal Name Act of 1923
The choice of personal name was previously not considered to be an area the law should interfere with. From 1814, the King of Norway could licence the use of certain surnames, but the legal implications of that authority were unclear. Guttorm Hallager published a book in 1895, Om personnavne efter norsk og fremed Ret, about names according to Norwegian and foreign law. And he concluded that there was no legislation in Norway governing the use of personal names. However, the following year, the Supreme Court of Norway passed a verdict setting a precedent that there actually were rules governing the choice of personal name. Someone by the name of Aars had advised a man from the farm Årsrud to take the surname Aars, a name he had used for over 40 years. The Supreme Court ruled that he was not entitled to carry that surname, and thus establishing a precedent for personal naming laws in Norway. Norwegians realised then that not all surnames were protected by family legislation, only a few aristocratic names.
The Personal Name Act of 1923
In 1902, a bill was forwarded to parliament proposing legislation governing surnames. No more happened until 1922, when a new bill was introduced. This proposal resulted in the Personal Name Act of 1923. A main goal was to make hereditary surnames the norm, but the legislation was carefully worded, and did not enforce hereditary surnames, but laid down practical and important rules as to how a person could obtain one without applying for a licence, about rights to surnames, and rules for granting permission to use certain names. If a name were more unusual, a licence to use the name could only be granted with the permission of all the existing bearers. The act had its foundation in the name protection rules the courts had already established. A licence to use a protected surname could be granted in certain cases if the applicant had a strong family connection to the name, but there were also regulations limiting the bestowal of licences, in order to create stability in the development of surnames in Norway.
The law decreed that all persons born after July 1st 1923 automatically received a surname at birth. The name was primarily decided by parentage. If a child was born in wedlock, it received the father’s surname. If it was illegitimate, one could choose between the mother’s and the father’s surnames. Adopted children were normally given the surname of the adoptive parents, but could also keep their own family name or a combination of the two.
A woman automatically received her husband’s surname at marriage, but could decide to keep her own maiden name as a middle name. Only “under special circumstances” could a woman retain her maiden name at marriage, e.g. if she were well known professionally by that name. An amendment in 1949 allowed women to retain their maiden names, but they could only apply for this after the marriage and with their husbands’ approval.
It was a punishable offence to change one’s name without official permission, cf. article 337 in the penal code. It was also possible to institute legal proceedings if one believed others had infringed the name protection act, also in cases where the surname had been granted by licence, within a 3-year limit.
The law had also stipulated rules for given names and prohibited the use of surnames as forenames. Nor did it permit the selection of given names which could become a source of lifelong embarrassment to the person.
The term “middle name” was not present in legal terminology. But the law permitted a child to use its mother’s maiden name or a patronymic from its father’s name (-sen name) between its given name(s) and its surname. But these were officially regarded as given names.
Source: Based on a study made by the Ministry of Justice and Police in 1999 in connection with the need to amend the Personal Name Act of 1964. Published with permission from the Ministry of Justice. Associate Professor Ivar Utne of the Nordic Institute, the University of Bergen, was responsible for the name study. The complete article is to be found here (only in Norwegian): NOU 2001: 1 Lov om personnavn — Tradisjon, liberalisering og forenkling.