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 , and hence this article also primarily concerns first names. 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 , psychology, , , 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

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 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 , 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 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 phenomenon—depending on their academic background. Two master theses written at the University of Tromsø on 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 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 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. It seems reasonable that this inequality can be explained as a consequence of male social dominance during the 1800s. It was apparently regarded as grander that, for example, uncle Jon left his ‘mark’ in the name of the niece Jonette than the nephew Irenius inherited his name from aunt Irene . During the 1800s men were much more likely to have considerable wealth or own valuable assets, and for these reasons Jonette might be eligible for an inheritance from uncle Jon, while Irenius would have little hope of any inheritance from aunt Irene. In any case, students are often interested in discussions about why so many girls were given feminised names in the 1800s (e.g. Petrine or Jonette ) while few boys had ‘gender-crossing’ names (e.g. Cathrinus ).

3. Studying anthroponymy at the university level As a consequence of the so-called Bologna process, Norwegian uni- versities were reformed in 2003. The degree structure was changed, also introducing the terms bachelor and master to replace previous terms. In the following sections (3.1 and 3.2) I will, for the sake of 178 GULBRAND ALHAUG

simplicity, use the current designations instead the pre-2003 designa- tions. The reform also further emphasised the importance of paper writing, and in the following I will focus on commenting on different aspects of the paper writing process. Firstly I will discuss the contents of the bachelor degree (3.1), then the master degree (3.2).

3.1. Bachelor level At the BA level students can take a 10 credit course in anthroponymy (10 credits equals 1/3 of the workload during the semester). The central requirement of this subject is a project paper (10–12 pages). Digitised censuses covering 18 th and 19 th century Norway are now readily available (censuses undertaken in 1801, 1865, 1875 and 1900). These censuses have proved to be a suitable material for student papers. It was natural for the students to write about names in the municipality in which they grew up as this gave them a more personal relationship to the data. These students are often first to use the digitised name data for their municipality, which also gives them the feeling that they have discovered something new and original about naming practices. Students are also encouraged to contact people with knowledge about local history to get more insight into local naming traditions. In to restrict the size of project papers, it has often been limited to female names. The reason for choosing female names is that during the 1800s, there were greater changes in the name patterns for girls than for boys. Hence, female names are more interesting. The municipalities’ population figures vary to a certain extent, but generally the name data for an average municipality (during the 1800s) will include about 3000 women. It is a great challenge for the students to systematise this material and try to uncover a pattern in the changes over time throughout the 1800s. (The students are encouraged to make use of a computer for this work.) I know in advance that they will certainly uncover quite a clear pattern; however, I refrain from revealing what they might expect to find, as the students are entitled to the rewarding feeling of discovery. It would also be possible to provide students with more recent name data, but The Data Inspectorate (a Government privacy protection body) has strict rules for the publication of data and information for people born after 1900. Students may apply to get access to this material, but this is a complicated and long drawn-out affair, and when the application is finally granted they are so far into the semester that they are unable to finish their papers by the due date. Commonly students agree on one specific topic, e.g. the develop- ment of the name pattern in a municipality in the 1800s. Thus I have the opportunity to focus lectures and tutorials on problems and topics TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 179

shared by many of the students. However, students are allowed to write about other topics as well. This applies to, for example, international students, who naturally do not have any particular interest in one single Norwegian municipality. These students have written papers on topics such as women’s names in Icelandic sagas and Scandinavian personal names as the first element in toponyms used on the Shetland Islands. Some of the student papers have been of such high quality that they have been published in the Northern Norwegian journal of language and , Håløygminne . Another topic students have found interesting is the study of the Scandinavian name renaissance (in the latter part of the 1800s) in a sociological perspective. In this case the students choose their own ‘renaissance name’, e.g. Hjørdis , Gudrun or Dagny , and again the course may focus on common problems to be addressed. An interesting trait shared by these names is that they are all subject to a ‘social degradation’ towards the end of the 1800s (see section 2). I will return to the ‘renaissance names’ in connection with the dis- cussion of computer programmes on digitised population censuses that have recorded sociological information about the families (see section 4.3).

3.2. Teaching at the master level For some students, anthroponymy as a subject at the BA level has acted as a springboard to continue in this field at the master level. Master students are required to write an approximately 100 page long thesis; however, in practice the theses often end up a lot longer, sometimes about 200 pages. The master degree curriculum is more distinctively theoretical and has a greater scope compared to the BA level. The course includes a seminar in which the students present their material and findings. The following are examples of topics that students have chosen for their master theses since 1999:

• The names of children born to Polish and Polish-Norwegian parents in Norway 1975–2000. • The names of children born to immigrant parents in Tromsø during the 1990s. • Ethnic traits in ’s name pattern (Lyngen being a Northern Norwegian municipality with Finnish immigrant influences). • Comparing the development of the popularity of female names in a coastal area (the Islands) and a non-coastal area (Indre ) in during the 1800s. 180 GULBRAND ALHAUG

• The introduction of the multiple-first-names usage (e.g. Anne Else Benedicte ) during the 1700s in Northern Norway, with a focus on sociological aspects. • The use of surnames as first names in Northern Norway during the 1800s. • Surname changes in Northern Norway in the 1990s.

4. The use of computers in anthroponymic research Students benefit greatly from the use of computers in the paper and thesis writing process, so in the present section I will primarily discuss how computers can be a resource in the systematisation and analysis of data. Information technology has made it possible for students to write new types of papers previously thought impossible. Using specialised software the students can systematise large amounts of data and extract interesting traits for the names in the area in question. Firstly I will discuss a particular problem pertaining to data from 19 th century Norway ―that is, the great number of possible spellings of a name, a problem, however, which computer technology may help to solve (section 4.1). Secondly I will show how one may isolate interesting names by means of a particular method of systematisation (based on name frequency, section 4.2). In section 4.3 I will provide examples of sociology-based paper types which make use of digitised data. Finally, in section 4.4, I will discuss educational experiences with the use of IT as an educational platform (the virtual classroom). IT-based education has been particularly important in distance education (via the Internet) in anthroponymy as well as in other fields of study.

4.1. Computer assisted bundling of name variants (lemmatisation) First name data for student papers can be taken from digitised censuses covering the 18 th and 19 th century (censuses undertaken in 1801, 1865, 1875 and 1900). The censuses of 1865, 1875 and 1900 are the main data sources for most of the papers written at the BA level. One of the problems with this material has been the great number of variants of the ‘same’ name. In the data for Northern Norway alone there are 30 variants of Henriette : Henriete, Henriethe, Henriette, Henrigjethe, Henrigjæthe, Henrigætte, Henrihjette, Henrijeete, Henrijethe, Henrijette, Henrijætte, Henriæthe, Henriætte, Henriætthe, Hænriethe, Hænriætte, Henryette, Henrygjette, Henryjette, Hendriete, Hendriethe, Hendriette, Hendrihjette, Hendrijethe, Hendrijette, Hendrijætte, Hendriæte, Hendriæthe, Hendriætte, Hendryætte . In addition to these there is another variation, namely those adding the TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 181

suffix -a, e.g. Henriætta and Henrietha . To lemmatise the variants would mean the students would have to put in hours of additional effort. For this reason I have taken on this extra work and lemmatised the data for Northern Norway in order to provide students with lemmatised data for their chosen municipality (see Alhaug 1992 for the lemmatisation criteria). To aid the work I used a computer programme called Panorama, which is available for both Windows and Macintosh platforms. The software proved highly suitable for the lemmatisation process. If the name variants had not been lemmatised it might have led to incorrect results in the com- parison of the number of names in different municipalities. So-called ornamental spellings (contrary to the spelling rules of Norwegian), such as Caspara , Ceverin , Christopher , Zara , versus the common Norwegian spellings Kaspara , Severin , Kristoffer , Sara , seem to appear more frequently in the cities than in the rural areas. If name variants were included in the calculation of names one would conclude that there are many more names in cities compared to the rural areas, but after the ‘bundling’ of these names, this tendency becomes less dominant.

4.2. Computerised extraction of particularly interesting names The BA students are required to write a paper of about 12 pages; however, they are easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of names if they are to discuss every name in a municipality. In a medium-sized municipality there will be approx. 500 different female names. This is the case, for instance, of the Northern Norwegian municipality of Vågan, which I will use as an example in this section. The question is: How can the data be systematised to make particularly interesting names stand out ―and to sift out less interesting ones? I will discuss this in the following. A common paper topic has been to compare the name pattern in two periods of the 19 th century, e.g. 1850–69 and 1880–99 (period I and II in fig. 2). By contrasting these two periods one may uncover which names are characteristic of a certain period. Characteristic names are names that are more common in one period compared to the other, and I have called such names marker names (Alhaug 1990: 34). The frequency requirement of marker names can be adjusted to the purpose of the research, and in the case of the papers written by BA students, the marker name requirements have been:

• The name must apply to at least four people. • The name must be at least four times more frequent in one of the periods compared to the other period. 182 GULBRAND ALHAUG

Per. I Per. II

Hansine Astrid Sofie

Ingrid Oline Helene

Fig. 2. Marker names for period I and II of the 1800s.

Fig. 2 shows the marker names in the two semi-circles to the left and right, while the less interesting names (those whose popularity changes little between the periods, e.g. Sofie ) appear in the middle. In terms of changing popularity, the marker names are the central, and one can more easily pinpoint changing trends in basing the analyses on these names. In comparing marker names of the two 19 th century periods students make discoveries, for instance such as that names with the suffix -ine are typical for period I, and that Scandinavian names (e.g. Astrid and Gudrun ) are dominant in period II. Table 1 and 2 (next page) show the frequency of marker names in the Northern Norwegian municipality of Vågan. For the sake of simplicity I have chosen ten names to illustrate the method ―table 1 showing names from E to L ( Emilie – Louise ) and table 2 names from A to E ( Alfhild – Elfrida ). (In writing their project paper on female names in their home municipality, students will usually classify and analyse about 40 marker names for each period.) The two tables have the same structure. The first two columns show the number of women in the municipality with the names in question in period I and II (in absolute frequency). TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 183

Table 1. Selection of period I marker name frequencies (compared to per. II).

Absolute freq. Relative freq. (per 1000) I II I II % in period I

Emilie 19 2 18 2 90 Georgine 4 0 4 0 100 Hansine 26 3 24 3 89 Inger 5 0 5 0 100 Jakobine 7 0 7 0 100 Jørgine 12 1 11 1 92 Karen 29 4 27 3 90 Kornelia 4 0 4 0 100 Kristiane 6 1 6 1 86 Louise 5 0 5 0 100

As the number of women in the municipality is different in period I compared to period II (1071 and 1180) the absolute frequencies have been converted to relative frequencies (per 1000) in the next two columns. To even out the difference in the number of women in the two periods, period I is somewhat longer than period II (1850–1874 as opposed to 1880–1900). Students can quickly see which types of names are dominant in period I ―as most of them have, in fact, been subject to Movierung (‘cross-gender naming’), such as Emilie , Georgine , Hansine , Jakobine , Jørgine , Kornelia and Kristiane , and they are represented by the following suffixes: -ie , -ine , -ia and -e. I have presented period II marker names in table 2.

Table 2. Selection of period II marker name frequencies (compared to per. I).

Absolute freq. Relative freq. (per 1000) I II I II % in period II

Alfhild 0 15 0 13 100 Alma 0 5 0 4 100 Amanda 1 5 1 4 80 Aslaug 1 14 1 12 92 Asta 0 4 0 3 100 Astrid 1 27 1 23 96 Borghild 1 9 1 8 89 Dagmar 0 13 0 11 100 Dagny 0 11 0 9 100 Elfrida 0 7 0 6 100 184 GULBRAND ALHAUG

In table 2 students will notice a completely different name pattern than that of period I. Now Scandinavian names (e.g. Alfhild , Aslaug , Asta , Astrid , Borghild , Dagmar , Dagny ) are strikingly dominant. Alma and Amanda are the only ones that cannot be considered Scandinavia names. 2 The marker name method is also useful to students wanting to com- pare first names in two areas (e.g. two municipalities or two counties). This is exemplified in table 3, which includes names from two larger areas with similar population size. The Southern Norwegian counties of Hedmark and Oppland are contrasted to Northern Norway. The sorting criterion for the table is diminishing percentage in the right- hand column. In this selection at least 40 men must have had the particular names to fulfil the frequency requirement. After the twelve first marker names I have added examples of two types of names characteristic of Northern Norway: names ending in -(i)us and the use of surnames as first names.

Table 3 (next page) shows that two types of names are characteristic of male names in Northern Norway compared to those of Hedmark and Oppland (H-O):

A. Names which were originally surnames, e.g. Jentoft , Lind , Jæger and Meyer .

B. Names with the suffix -(i)us , e.g. Amandus , Otelius , Marelius , Analius and Parelius . (Some of these are Movierungen, e.g. Otelius < Otelie , Marelius < Marie , Analius < Anna .)

4.3. Sociology-oriented papers based on digitised data The digitised censuses for the 1800s are highly suitable for different types of socioonomastic papers. Thus, these censuses list the head of the family’s (father’s) occupation, as well as a designated code for the occupation (an occupation code). This code is also transferred to the family members (wife and children). Hence the material is well suited for research into the naming practices of different social classes. The original idea behind the use of occupation codes was that it would aid historians; however, these codes have also proved highly useful to sociology-oriented anthroponymists.

2 Even though Dagmar is based on the Slavic name Dragomir I will consider it a Scandinavian name, for example because it has strong cultural ties to the Danish period of national romanticism. Hence it is considered Scandinavian by most people. TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 185

Table 3. Marker names for Northern Norway (compared to Hedmark and Oppland).

North-Norw. Hed.-Oppl. Total % North-Norw.

Hedley 41 0 41 100,0 Nelson 40 0 40 100,0 Ingvart 161 1 162 99,4 Hilbert 154 1 155 99,4 Marensius 156 1 157 99,4 Amandus 410 3 413 99,3 Jentoft 617 5 622 99,2 Parelius 252 2 254 99,2 Otelius 125 1 126 99,2 Lind 258 3 261 98,9 Marelius 241 3 244 98,8 Karolius 206 3 209 98,6 Kornelius 539 13 552 97,6 Analius 40 1 41 97,6 Jæger 75 2 77 97,4 Meyer 345 10 355 97,2

We return now to an example of the potential use of the 1900 census in a socioonomastic paper. A possible topic might be: What type of names did upper-class parents give to their children towards the end of the 19 th century? In the use of the computer software to extract relevant data for this paper one may formulate these two criteria:

• The families must belong to the upper class, e.g. the two highest social classes (code 20 or 21, see column D, Table 4, the column for occupation). • The parents must have at least six children. 3

Using these criteria to sift out the data, the computer software selects families such as the one shown in table 4. The head of the family, Richard Olai Kaarbø, who was born in Trondenes, Northern Norway in 1850, was a wealthy man in his municipality. He was the mayor of Trondenes, founded the shipyard of and co-founded the steamship company the Haalogalandske Dampskibsselskab. Because

3 The reason why the minimum of six children is chosen is to limit the number of families. As children commonly moved out of home when nearing 20 years of age one cannot hope to excerpt all the parents’ children, e.g. children born before 1880. 186 GULBRAND ALHAUG

of his contribution to the community he has been named “the founding father of Harstad” (Ramsvik 1998: 150).

Table 4. Names in an upper class family (explanation of codes below).

First name(s) Surname A Sex Born Place of birth B C D

Richard Olai Kaarbø m 1850 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Anna Elisabet Kaarbø f 1851 1917 1914 20 Wilhelm Darre Kaarbø 1 m 1876 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Reidar Kaarbø 2 m 1878 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Leikny Kaarbø 3 f 1879 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Valdis Kaarbø 4 f 1882 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Einar Kaarbø 5 m 1884 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Bergliot Kaarbø 6 f 1886 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Ragnhild Kaarbø 7 f 1889 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Signy Kaarbø 8 f 1890 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Gudrun Kaarbø 9 f 1892 Trondenes 1914 1914 20 Thorfin Kaarbø 10 m 1897 Trondenes 1914 1914 20

The original census contains several additional columns; however, they have been excluded from this presentation as they were less interesting in terms of anthroponymy.

Explanation of cols. A–D, Table 4 A. The birth sequence of siblings. This information has been added during the digitisation of the census. In anthroponymy this is a valuable information as parents are often more creative in naming the last children. (During the 1800s the first children were often named after their grandparents.) B. Code for the municipality of birth. The first two numbers ( 19 in 1914 ) refer to the county of birth (Troms county). In order to reduce the scope of the paper to a single county, or a selection of municipalities within the county (the two latter numbers), this may be specified in this column. For children, the municipality of birth is often identical to the municipality of registration in 1900 (see C below). On the other hand, parents are potentially migrants (e.g. from Southern Norway), and in this case it is proper for the students to evaluate whether the children’s names have been influenced by the prevailing name customs in the place where their parents grew up. C. Code for the municipality of registration. This column shows the code of the municipality in which the person lived in 1900. (There is also a separate column excluded from this presentation that TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 187

shows the name of the municipality of registration.) D. Code for the father’s occupation. This code is transferred and applied to all family members. (Due to space constraints I have excluded the full occupational description.)

So how then, can the information on the Kaarbø family (table 4) be used in students’ papers? In the following I will focus on a small selection of traits. While both parents have names of foreign origin (as well as two first names instead of just one ―Richard Olai and Anna Elisabet ), it seems that all of the ten children have been given names consistent with a new trend making its way into Norway in the middle of the 19 th century: the Scandianvian name renaissance.4 (See section 2 for additional information on this trend.) It is also apparent that all the children (the firstborn excepted) are given a single first name, which suggests that the custom of giving children two or more first names is becoming less popular in upper class society. This foreign name custom, which was a result of largely German influence, was introduced in the upper class in the 1700s (Alhaug 2003/2004: 89–92). Some of the children’s names (shown in table 4) were very rare in the 1800s. Leikny, born in 1879, was the first ever registered with that name in Norway. In fact it has only one documented use, viz. in Iceland at about the year 1000 AD (Lind 1905–15: 735; Kruken, Stemshaug 1995: 178). I find it probable that the parents themselves have constructed Leikny based on the existing elements leik (‘play’) and ny (‘new’). These elements, which had been rarely used before, occur in a few other 19 th century names. The element -ny appears in the name of one of Leikny’s sisters, Signy (born 1890), while the element leik is found in male names, e.g. Herleik , Torleik and Vigleik . This is probably the source made use of by the parents of Leikny . Valdis (child no. 4) is another example of a rare name. Only three other women had this name in Norway at the time of her birth (1882). Valdis consists of the Old Norse elements Val - (‘those fallen in battle’) and -dis (‘lower female deity, goddess’). It is always interesting for students to investigate how a new name has spread, socially and geographically. Hence introducing theories on the spread of innovations may be useful (Rogers 2003). Using the computer software students can, for example, excerpt all the occurrences of Leikny in the census of 1900 (see table 5). Due to limitations of space this table is limited to those born up to 1897—a total of 13 girls. It may seem odd that the first three girls with this

4 The oldest son, Wilhelm Darre, does have a German first name – Wilhelm . However, his , Darre , is an original surname (upper class name of the 1300s). It is construed from the Old Norse word darr, meaning ‘spear’. 188 GULBRAND ALHAUG

name (1879, 1883 and 1893) were born at very distant geographical locations within Norway (see fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Map of Norway showing the first three occurrences of Leikny .

It becomes a detective-like task for the students to figure out if there is a connection (e.g. a family connection) between the three Leikny girls. But if a connection between the three families cannot be established, it is likely that the parents have constructed the name independently— making use of the existing elements leik and ny. There are a couple of examples of such new combinations of names from existing elements, e.g. Rud-vald (from Rud-olf and Ing-vald ) in the latter part of the 1800s and at the beginning of the 1900s, e.g. in Northern Norway (Alhaug 2002: 312). The names in table 5 (next page) are listed chronologically according to year of birth. Less relevant columns have been excluded. The occupational code is replaced by the actual occupation de- signation. This table shows that the highest geographic concentration of the name Leikny (7 out of 13 girls) is found in the municipality of Trondenes (Troms county), in which the first Leikny was born (in 1879). From this main area the name spread to the northern parts of the neighbouring county (the municipalities of and Øksnes).

TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 189

Table 5. Geographic and social diffusion of the new female name Leikny (for B and C, see table 4).

First name Surname Born Place of B C Father’s occupation birth

Leikny Kaarbø 1879 Trondenes 1914 1914 Owner of shipyard Leikny Kristine Andraa 1883 Drøbak 0203 0203 Head of school Bera Leikny Svoren 1893 Ulstein 1517 1249 Teacher Leikny Harriette Johnsdtr 1894 Dverberg 1872 1872 Master blacksmith Leikny Jakobsen 1896 Trondenes 1914 1914 Fisherman, peasant Leikny Andreasen 1897 Trondenes 1914 1914 Fisherman, peasant Leikny Mikalsen 1897 Trondenes 1914 1914 Fisherman, peasant Leikny Bertora 5 Mikkelsen 1897 Trondenes 1914 1914 Carpenter, peasant Leikny Aas 1897 Trondenes 1914 1914 Mason Leikny Katinka Petrea Martinussen 1897 Trondenes 1914 1914 Fisherman, steward Leikny Sofie Johanna Jørgensdtr 1897 Lurøy 1834 1834 Mason Leikny Lorentsdtr 1897 Snåsa 1736 1736 Landlord Leikny Pedersen 1897 Øksnes 1868 1868 Fisherman, peasant

New naming trends are normally first introduced in the upper class, and this is the case also for Leikny , which is part of a new trend ―the Scandinavian name renaissance. The first three children registered with this name were born to upper class parents—cf. their fathers’ high-status occupations (owner of shipyard, head of school and teacher). We have established that Trondenes was a ‘core’ area for the name Leikny . The question is how Leikny then spread socially in the municipality after the birth of the first Leikny 1879. In fact, another 17 years passed until the next appearance of the name in Trondenes (1896), and it is then used exclusively in the lower social classes: among fishermen, peasants and other families at the lower end of the social hierarchy. Eager students may discover another lower class name trait amongst these families: five out of these six families have patronymic names (for instance names with the suffix -sen ‘son’, e.g. Jakobsen ). These are in direct contrast to the high-status surname

5 Bertora , part of the double name Leikny Bertora (born 1897 in Trondenes), is the first occurrence of this name form in the 1900 census. It seems probable that Bertora is a variant of the saga name Bergtora (a woman in the Old Norse Njal ’s Saga ). There are only six women named Bergtora in the 1900 census. In the same county as Leikny Bertora is born (Troms) we find two girls (1891 and 1892) with the original form Bergtora (in the municipality of ). It is possible that Leikny Bertora ’s parents got the idea for the name from Bardu by oral communication. However, one would expect a correct spelling had they read Njal ’s Saga .

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Kaarbø (the surname of the first Leikny at Trondenes). Additionally we may point out that family no. 2 and 3 in table 5 also have high- status surnames ( Andraa and Svoren ). As mentioned above the fathers of these two families were teachers. The social spread of the new name, Leikny , then, is consistent with the expected pattern: It is initially used by the upper class and descends into the lower social classes after some years.

4.4. IT-based tuition Quite a few students take distance courses in Scandinavian languages, both at the bachelor level and the master level. These students cannot, for various reasons, study full time at the university and thus often combine their studies with a full-time job, for example as teachers. IT- based distance courses have been given since 2001; most of the teaching has taken place in a virtual classroom. In the first course (2001) we had four meetings, while the next one (2002) had only one meeting. Hence in 2002 most of the course was conducted in the virtual classroom. An important experience derived from these two courses was that it was greatly beneficial for the teaching and learning environment to have several meetings, like in the first course when we had four. During this course the students got to know each other well, partly through social events arranged by the Department of Scandi- navian languages in the evening after the teaching sessions. The fact that the students got to know each other and the teachers well affected the activity in the virtual classroom. In the 2002 course there was considerably less Internet activity, and this might be a result of the failure among students to get to know each other well enough. Paper writing was the main activity in the virtual classroom ―using the Norwegian educational platform called Classfronter . Students sent me drafts through Classfronter, and I commented the drafts, partially via Classfronter, partially by phone. At times there was some activity amongst students using Classfronter, e.g. discussing the classification of names. But the main impression was that they did not consider Classfronter well enough developed as an educational platform. On the other hand, they praised the computer programme Panorama, which they used for various systematisations of their data, e.g. the classification of names. Using an instruction manual written by me they were able to conduct various data systematisations at home. The computing skills learnt during this process were also valuable to students in other areas, e.g. the systematisation of fiction texts for the purposes of analyses. Looking ahead I believe IT-based teaching in should be developed through the cooperation between onomasticians at universi- ties and colleges. Teachers’ fields of speciality often differ (personal TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 191

names, place names or other types of names), and when everyone contributes with her or his expertise it may result in a highly attractive educational offering. Much of the teaching and learning can be con- ducted in the virtual classroom; however, a good learning environment requires that students should have at least two meetings—cf. the experience with the Tromsø courses described above. If such a national collaboration succeeded, it might be expanded to include other countries, e.g. Sweden and Denmark (as Norwegians, Swedes and Danes can understand each other relatively well).

5. Anthroponymy in secondary schools In this article I have focused on the teaching of anthroponymy at the university level. However, in the last few years the interest in personal names has been on the rise in secondary education as well. For instance, high school students have contacted university teachers in connection with their project work on names. University teachers may then give advice and guide the students, or even provide name data for the students to use in their papers. In fact, a committee consisting of four onomasticians (two each from Sweden and Norway) was appointed in May 2005 precisely to develop courses for secondary/high school students. One of the aims of this initiative was to recruit more students to the study of and anthroponymy at the universities.

References Alhaug, Gulbrand. 1990. A method for tracing characteristic name types ―by geographical region, social class, period etc. In: Tromsø Linguistics in the Eighties , 32–60. (Tromsø studies in linguistics 11.) Oslo: Novus press. Alhaug, Gulbrand. 1992. Lemmatisering av namnevariantar – ein nivåmodell basert på norsk materiale. [Lemmatisation of name variants: a level model based on Norwegian material.] Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica 10, 115–150. Alhaug, Gulbrand. 2002. Personal names in North Norway. Onoma 37, 301–322. Alhaug, Gulbrand 2003/2004. Hanne Elise Caroline – om fram- veksten av fleirnamnsskikken i Noreg på 1700-talet. [ Hanne Elise Caroline : on the introduction of the multiple-first-names usage in Norway in the 18 th century.] Namn og Nemne 20/21, 63–94. 192 GULBRAND ALHAUG

Alhaug, Gulbrand, Kristoffersen, Agnete Egilsdatter. 1999. Person- namn og likestilling. [Personal names and gender equality.] Namn og Nemne 16, 41–60. Alhaug, Gulbrand, Thorvaldsen, Gunnar. 2002. The problem of name variants ―how the historian can help the anthroponymist. In: Dieter Kremer et al. (eds.), Onomastik. Akten des 18. Inter- nationalen Kongresses für Namenforschung . Trier, 12.–17. April 1993. Vol. 6. Namenforschung und Geschichtswissen- chaften. Literarische Onomastik. Namenrecht. Ausgewählte Beiträge ( Ann Arbor, 1981 ), 5–12. (Patronymica Romanica 19.) Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. Bakken, Trine Sand. 2002. Fra Hansen til Figenschau . En under- søkelse av etternavnsendringer i Nord-Norge fra 1996 til 2000 . [From Hansen to Figenschau . A study of changes of surnames in North Norway from 1996 to 2000.] Master thesis in Scandinavian languages. University of Tromsø. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1979. La Distinction. Critique sociale du jugement . Paris: Éditions de Minuit. Brennen, Tim. 2000. On the meaning of personal names: A view from cognitive psychology. Names 48, 139–146. Karikoski, Elin Vanja. 1996. Finske slektsnavn i Sør-Varanger. [Finnish surnames in Sør-Varanger.] Studia anthroponymica Scandinavica 14, 83–108. Konstantinov, Yulian, Alhaug, Gulbrand. 1995. Names, Ethnicity and Politics : Islamic Names in Bulgaria 1912–1992 . Oslo: Novus press. Kruken, Kristoffer, Stemshaug, Ola. 1995 (eds.), Norsk personnamn- leksikon . [Norwegian lexicon of personal names.] 2 nd ed. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. Lind, E. H. 1905–15. Norsk-isländska dopnamn ock fingerade namn från medeltiden . [Norwegian-Icelandic Christian names and assumed names from the Medieval Ages.] Uppsala: Lunde- quistska bokhandeln–Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz. Ramsvik, Bente. 1998. Fra Nikoline til Leikny . Kvinnenavn i Tronde- nes 1840–1900. [From Nikoline to Leikny . Women’s names in Trondenes 1840–1900.] Håløygminne 20/3, 141–163. Rogers, Everett M. 2003. Diffusion of Innovations. 5 th ed. New York: Free Press. Thørnblad, Renee. 2003. Tradisjonell praksis i moderne samfunn – en analyse av kvinners navnebytte ved ekteskapsinngåelse . [Tradi- tional name practice in modern societies: an analysis of women’s changes of names when entering marriage.] Master thesis in Sociology. University of Tromsø.

TEACHING OF ANTHROPONYMY 193

Gulbrand Alhaug [email protected] University of Tromsø NO–9037 Tromsø

Summary: Teaching of anthroponymy: a Norwegian contribution The study of personal names may be described as interdisciplinary, and consequently teaching anthroponymy courses should reflect this. Thus it may be wise to include teachers from different fields (philology, sociology, psychology, etc.) in such courses. I would suggest that theories of taste are useful in anthroponymy. In Norway, writing papers is a central part of university studies. In this contribution I explain which types of papers students may write, specifically papers based on digital data. The use of computers to systematise the name data in different ways is particularly emphasised. Finally I suggest that university and college onomasticians collaborate in the development of an IT- based teaching system, a system which would be particularly useful for part- time students.

Résumé : L’enseignement d’anthroponymie : une contribution norvégienne L’étude des noms de personne peut être décrite comme interdisciplinaire, et l’enseignement de l’anthroponymie devrait en être le reflet. C’est pourquoi il pourrait être sage d’intégrer des enseignements de différentes disciplines (philo- logie, sociologie, psychologie, etc.) dans ces cours. Aussi suggérerai-je que les théories du goût sont utiles pour l’anthroponymie. En Norvège, la rédaction d’articles constitue une part majeure des études universitaires. Ici, j’explique quels types d’articles les étudiants peuvent écrire, reposant en particulier sur des données numériques. L’utilisation d’ordinateurs pour systématiser de différentes manières les données onomastiques est particulièrement mise en valeur. Je suggère enfin que les onomasticiens, des universités et autres établissements d’enseignement supérieur, collaborent au développement d’un programme d’enseignement basé sur l’informatique, spécialement destiné aux étudiants à temps partiel.

Zusammenfassung: Unterricht der Anthroponymie – ein norwegischer Beitrag Das Studium von Personennamen kann als eine interdisziplinäre Disziplin be- schrieben werden, was sich in Lehrveranstaltungen zur Vermittlung von Personennamen widerspiegeln sollte. So dürfte es vernünftig sein, Lehrkräfte aus unterschiedlichen Fachbereichen (z.B. der Philologie, Soziologie, Psycho- logie usw.) in solche Lehrveranstaltungen zu integrieren. Ich würde vor- 194 GULBRAND ALHAUG

schlagen, in der Anthroponymie Theorien über Geschmack als nützlich aufzu- greifen. Ein wichtiger Bestandteil des Studiums an norwegischen Universitäten besteht im Verfassen wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten. Vorliegender Beitrag er- läutert, welche Typen von Arbeiten die Studenten verfassen können. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Arbeiten, die sich auf Computerangaben stützen. Besonderes Gewicht wird dabei darauf gelegt, wie das Namenmaterial mit Hilfe von Computern unterschiedlich systematisiert werden kann. Schließlich wird vorgeschlagen, dass Namenforscher von Universitäten und Hochschulen bei der Entwicklung eines computergestützten Lehrprogramms zusammenarbeiten; ein solches Programm dürfte sich für Teilzeit-Studenten als besonders nützlich erweisen.