Teaching of anthroponymy: a Norwegian contribution Gulbrand ALHAUG 1. Introduction This article focuses on the teaching of anthroponymy at university level; however, some of the paper formats shown in section 4.2 would be suitable for secondary schools as well. Norwegian anthroponymy research has largely dealt with first names, and hence this article also primarily concerns first names. Surnames will be briefly discussed (see e.g. section 2). There are many similarities among those Norwegian universities and university colleges which offer courses in anthroponymy; however, this article is influenced by educational traditions at my own institution, the University of Tromsø. This applies, for example, to section 2 on anthroponymy as an interdisciplinary field of study. There are many reasons for the emphasis on an interdisciplinary tradition at the University of Tromsø, one of them being such as that one of the aspirations of this relatively young university (founded in 1972) was to encourage interdisciplinary research. 2. Anthroponymy ―an interdisciplinary field of study In my view, the fact that anthroponymy is an interdisciplinary field of study should be emphasised. To illustrate how different fields of study may be included, I usually show the students fig. 1 (next page), which demonstrates that linguistics, psychology, sociology, history, etc. are relevant to anthroponymy (and indeed, even more sciences could have been included). The modern science community underlines both the importance of interdisciplinary research and the fact that new knowledge often arises in the borderline between different fields of study. In fig. 1 this borderline is represented by the innermost circle. To include scholars from different fields of anthroponymy in the teaching process, means that students profit maximally from their 174 GULBRAND ALHAUG education. As an example I will mention an interdisciplinary seminar arranged in 1999 at the University of Tromsø in which students were able to see how names could be analysed from different points of view. Litera- ture Linguistics Psycho- logy Statistics Socio- logy Law Social anthropology Ethno- graphy History Philo- Religion sophy Fig. 1. Some fields of study relevant to anthroponymy. At this seminar, the psychologist Tim Brennen discussed the relation- ship between name and identity, and his lecture got an enthusiastic response from the seminar participants (approx. 15 students of psychology and Scandinavian languages as well as teachers from different fields of study). Inspired by the seminar discussion about the relationship between name and identity Brennen (2000) published an article in Names , titled “On the meaning of personal names: A view from cognitive psychology”. The historian Gunnar Thorvaldsen has been interested in naming practices in American immigrant families, and at the abovementioned TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 175 seminar he presented the findings of his study, titled “Marriage and names among immigrants to Minnesota” 1. An ethnic perspective was the basis of Elin Karikoski’s contribution on Finnish surnames in Sør- Varanger, a Norwegian municipality bordering both Finland and Russia. This study has been further described in Karikoski 1996. My own contribution to the seminar also had an ethnic viewpoint, viz. on name changes amongst the ethnic Muslim minority of Bulgaria, the Pomaks. One of the ideals for university level teaching is that it should be research based . Equally, as the students attending the interdisciplinary seminar gave the teachers great research ideas, one might call our research activity after the seminar teaching based research . The fact that many disciplines can be drawn into the study of personal names (see fig. 1) makes it difficult to formulate a super- ordinate theory of anthroponymy. For instance, in the study of derived names ( Jonette < Jon , Adine < Adrian etc.), one might base this on morphological theories. Similarly in a sociological approach to personal names, it would be natural to base the research on theories of sociology. Thus it might be rewarding to consider Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural-sociological theories, which claim that there is a difference in taste between different social classes. He suggests that people’s taste in music, for example, to a great degree is defined by social class. Thus the upper classes, according to Bourdieu, prefer Bach’s music, while waltzes by Strauss are more popular in the middle or lower classes. Bourdieu’s theories can be used with advantage with respect to parents’ choice of names; since when they try to explain why, for example, they chose the name Ingrid , they might reply: “We liked that name”. Clearly, it is a matter of taste. Bourdieu’s cultural-sociological theories can also be of importance in explaining why some names undergo a “social degradation” over time. As an example I can mention the Scandinavian name re- naissance, which introduced a new wave of names into Norway in the mid-1800s. During this renaissance, Scandinavian names that had been ‘dormant’ for hundreds of years, e.g. Sverre and Borghild , were re-introduced. Norwegians found these names in translations of Old Norse literature, such as Norse mythology and sagas about Norwegian kings. It appears that the parents who started giving their children such names lived in cities and were part of the upper class. But towards the end of the 1800s a different socioonomastic picture emerges: These ‘renaissance names’ became dominant in the urban working class, and names such as Hjørdis became rarer among the upper class. In 1 This survey can be found on the web at http://mcel.pacificu.edu/history/JAHC/ Thorvaldsen/ThorIndex.HTML. 176 GULBRAND ALHAUG accordance with Bourdieu’s theories, an explanation could be that as ‘renaissance names’ such as Hjørdis and Borghild became popular among lower classes, the upper class started searching for new names, thus keeping their distance to the lower classes ―also in terms of names. Hence, as time went by, names which were popular in the upper class would descend into the lower classes. In my experience, students may differ quite significantly in their description of a given name phenomenon—depending on their academic background. Two master theses written at the University of Tromsø on surname changes provide a good example. I was thesis advisor for one of the students (at the Department of Scandinavian languages), while the other student’s advisor came from the Department of Sociology. Naturally, the sociology student was to a greater extent concerned with sociological factors that could help explain changes in surnames (Thørnblad 2003), and for this reason she based her thesis on sociological theories. On the other hand, the Scandinavian Language student emphasised the names’ structural traits in conjunction with the change of surnames (Bakken 2002). For example, if a husband had a very common surname (e.g. Hansen ) the wife tended to keep her original surname (e.g. Dahlmo ). However, women would assume the husband’s surname if it, for instance, contained foreign letters, such as c, z and x. Hence, the surname Figenschau (originating in Germany) was desirable; one reason being the ‘status’ provided by its spelling—e.g. the element -schau , which differs from the orthophonic Norwegian element -skau . In comparing the two master theses, the differences are striking despite the fact that they both describe the same name phenomenon. This is also apparent from the bibliographies: Sociological literature dominates Thørnblad’s bibliography, while that of Bakken contains more traditional anthroponymic literature. When ‘my’ student was in the initial phase of the writing of her thesis, I encouraged her to try to cooperate with the student at the Department of Sociology (in the spirit of interdisciplinary research), but for several reasons this did not happen. However, such cooperation ought to be more common; for my own part I have had great benefit from it, for example through the publication of works with the historian Gunnar Thorvaldsen (Alhaug, Thorvaldsen 2002) and the social anthropologist Yulian Konstantinov (Konstantinov, Alhaug 1995). It may be useful to include articles with interdisciplinary elements in the curriculum. “Personal names and gender equality” (Alhaug, Kristoffersen 1999) is an example of such an article. With respect to names, gender equality is first and foremost related to law and sociology ―cf. various 20 th century laws and regulations on marital name changes. A historical perspective is also relevant ―note that TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 177 until approximately 1800s women commonly kept the same surname (of the patronymic type) throughout their lives, as is Icelandic tradition today. But during the 1800s a new custom was gradually introduced, i.e. women assumed the husband’s surname upon marriage. This remained customary until the latter part of the 1900s; at that point many women became more conscious of gender equality and often retained their surname after marriage. In research on names and gender equality it is also interesting to take a linguistic point of view. In the 1800s it became increasingly common to name across the gender boundary. Girls were the initial subject to ‘cross-gender’ naming, e.g. Hansine after a male relative named Hans . Many female first names derived from male ones, such as Antona , Antonia , Antone , Antonine and Antonette , were introduced into Norway at that time. In German terminology naming across the gender boundary is called Movierung ; in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish it is called movering . (In English the term feminisation has been used about female names derived from male names; however, I am not aware of a broader term similar to the German term Movierung —that is, a term which also covers naming ‘the other way around’—from female names to male names, e.g. Cathrine > Cathrinus .) While creating female names from male names ( Hans + -ine > Hansine ) was fairly usual during the 1800s, the opposite rarely happened (e.g. Irene + -ius > Irenius and Olga + -ar > Olgar ), even though the relevant suffixes are available. If we were to explain the asymmetry in the use of Movierung , we would have to delve into history and sociology.