Icelandic Laws Concerning Personal Names and their Influence Guðrún KVARAN Introduction Laws concerning Icelandic names have been in effect from the year 1913. The oldest law applied to given names, surnames and patro- nymics. A ‘patronymic’ is in Iceland used for the name of the father in genitive with the sending son ‘son’, if male, but dóttir ‘daughter’, if female (see chapter 4). For those not familiar with the Icelandic nam- ing system it should be pointed out that the Icelandic given name is the main and ‘real name’, not patronymic, so that e.g. people are alpha- betically listed with their given names. Ever since the first years of the settlement in the 9th century it has been a tradition in Iceland to use a given name when addressing a person, and then use his or hers father’s name (later also mother’s name) for further distinction from others. SigurðurJónsson is addressed as Sigurður as is also SigurðurPétursson. In the first case the father’s name is Jón,but in the latter case Pétur (Kvaran 2007). Surnames are relatively few, the oldest of them from the 17th century. New laws were passed in the years 1925, 1991 and 1997, with significant changes as to what was accepted at each time. This article discusses the effects these laws have had on the naming habits of Ice- landers and foreign nationals that settle in Iceland. The rules about Icelandic given names have been liberalized, but the rules about sur- names tightened. New given names, however, are not entered into an official registry of acceptable names unless a committee, active since 1991, has approved them. The same committee also decides on middle names that are registered separately. Middle names were allowed with the law passed in 1997 (see chapter 5.5). The last changes to the name-laws have had both positive and negative effects on the language structure, which I intend to point out and demonstrate with examples. For example, the use of names written in a foreign way—which are allowed provided they have become Onoma 47 (2012), 163-179. doi: 10.2143/ONO.47.0.3085144. © Onoma. All rights reserved. 997898.indb7898.indb 116363 66/07/15/07/15 008:538:53 164 GUÐRÚN KVA R A N established in the sense of the law—is often inconsistent with the phonological and morphological system which may cause confusion about pronunciation and writing. This is also the case if the one and the same name can both be a given name and a middle name. The liber- alization of the law has also had a substantial impact on the Icelandic stock of names. Traditional and established names have become less popular and been replaced by foreign fashionable ones. These devel- opments will be discussed further below. Law Passed in 1913 The naming traditions of the Icelanders changed little from the time of the first settlement in the 9th century until the 19th century. Dou- ble names started appearing in the early 19th century, but it took a long time until they became common practice. From the earliest times children traditionally bore patronymics, although examples can be found in the ancient literature of children who bore matronymic. For example Hildiríðarsynir (the sons of Hildiríður) in Egils Saga and Droplaugarsynir (the sons of Droplaug) in the Saga of Droplaugarsynir. In both these cases the sons lost their fathers at a young age and were raised by their mothers. Examples of children being named after their mothers can be found in national censuses up to the time that the laws were revised in 1925, but the custom was to try to find a ‘father’, if unknown, for the registration of the church. The real fathers were often the priests or the owners of the bigger farms who payed the farm laborers to admit the paternity. In the latter half of the 19th century it became increasingly com- mon that Icelanders changed their names somewhat arbitrarily by modi- fying their given names or adopting surnames which they used for the family and the descendants. The oldest surname, Vídalín, formed from the valley Víðidalur, stems most likely from the 17th century, and Thorlacius (formed from Þorláksson) is only a little younger. The number of surnames increased bit by bit: in the census from 1855, 105 surnames are found, but 297 in the census from 1910. This development displeased a lot of people, and a number of articles appeared in magazines and newspapers against surnames, but also some to their defense. Finally, a law on given names was passed in 1913 (Kvaran, Jónsson 1991: 71-72), the first ever in Iceland. Of its 15 articles, 9 are concerned with surnames. Now it was allowed to 997898.indb7898.indb 116464 66/07/15/07/15 008:538:53 ICELANDIC LAWS CONCERNING PERSONAL NAMES … 165 take up surnames, under the proviso that certain rules were met. The 8th article of the law is significant because it states that a list should be compiled of words and things which could be appropriate for form- ing surnames, and also a list of ancient and new names of men and women to make the selection of names easier. The committee that was formed issued rules in 1915, Icelandicnames, and pointed out four ways to form new surnames: • One could name oneself after a parent: Ari > Aran, Bárður > Bárðan, Svafa > Svafon. • One could name oneself after places by using the endings –an or -on: Bali (farm) > Balan; Hlíð(farm) > Hlíðan,Blanda (river) > Blandon. The endings -star, -fer and -mann were pointed out, to form surnames after names of places. Bergstaðir (farm) > Bergstar, Gaukstaðir (farm) > Gaukstar; Axarfjörður (fjord) > Axfer, Gils- fjörður (fjord) > Gilsfer; Höfn (place) > Hafnmann, Búðir (place) > Búðmann. • Old words in the language like akarn (acorn) > Akarn. • Nicknames of the persons from the old literature, such as Bjólan (Helgi bjólan, settler), Kvaran (Ólafur kvaran, Irish king) were pointed out. The proposals of the committee were fiercely criticized, especially at the beginning, but some people did make use of its suggestions. Adap- tion of a new surname had to be paid for and the name then became the legal property of the payee, his spouse and children. In the years 1915 to 1925 over 240 new surnames were listed (Kvaran, Jónsson 1991: 73–77). Many of them are still in use today, but others did not last long. Law Passed in 1925 Those who had been most vocal against surnames did not quiet down when the law was passed, and in 1923 a bill was presented containing only three articles. According to the first article everyone was required to follow the old tradition of given names. No new surnames were to be adopted, but, thirdly, those who were older than 10 years old could keep the surname they had been given, but those younger than 10 years had to relinquish it. This bill did not pass, but a new one was presented in 1925 (Kvaran, Jónsson 1991: 77–79), causing heated debates in the parliament until 997898.indb7898.indb 116565 66/07/15/07/15 008:538:53 166 GUÐRÚN KVA R A N the latter was finally adopted. It consisted of seven articles. Its main points were that each individual should have one or two given names and also get a patronymic or matronymic after the given name or use the name of an adoptive father as patronymic and write his or her name in the same way during the whole life. No one could adopt a surname from there on. The third article was very significant. It states that Icelandic cit- izens and their descendants that bore surnames already in 1913 could keep them. Surnames adopted after 1913 could be kept by the bearers of these names as well as their children, but not by any further descend- ants. Article 4 states that no names may be given other than those cor- rectly following the rules of the Icelandic language. The supervision of the observance of this article was the responsibility of the clergy. In case of dispute the Department of Philosophy of the University of Ice- land was to arbitrate. According to the 6th article the authorities were to issue a list, containing the suggestions of the Department of Phi- losophy for names which should be banned. This law was not implemented stringently. Often a child was given more than two names, especially if the third name was a ‘disguised’ surname. A not uncommon practice was that a child was given a sur- name as the second or third given name, e.g.JónBreiðfjörðGuðmunds- son, JónSigurðurBreiðfjörðGuðmundsson or AnnaBreiðfjörðGuð- mundsdóttir, AnnaSigríðurBreiðfjörðGuðmundsdóttir. Often these were the children of women that bore surnames, but such names could only be inherited from the father’s side. Four attempts were made to revise the name law from 1925 until finally, with the fourth attempt, a new law was passed. This was in March 1991. Law Passed in 1991 The law of 1991 was much more elaborate than the one from 1925 (Kvaran, Jónsson 1991; 81–86). It had 5 chapters and a total of 26 arti- cles. The contents relevant for naming will now be related. The first chapter dealt with given names. The first article stated that naming a child was mandatory and that the number of names could not exceed three. The second article stated that the name had to be Icelandic and should not go against the Icelandic morphological rules. The name must not be a burden for the child. A girl could neither be 997898.indb7898.indb 116666 66/07/15/07/15 008:538:53 ICELANDIC LAWS CONCERNING PERSONAL NAMES … 167 given a man’s name nor a boy a woman’s name and it was not allowed to give a surname as a given name unless that name was established by tradition.