Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.1967, Blaðsíða 8

Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.1967, Blaðsíða 8
8 LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 1. JÚNl 1967 PROFESSOR HARALDUR BESSASON: A Few Comments on lcelandic Proper Names in N. America Among Icelandic immigrants to North America there were only a few people with estab- lished family surnames, since the ancient custom of using patronymics with the ending -sonfr) and -dóttir has pre- vailed in Iceland. Among Icelanders this absence of surnames has increased the importance of given names as identifying elements and prevented their use in abbreviated form. The old custom of identifying peo- ple by adding names of farms or other place names to the personal names has always been well known in Iceland, even though place names in this position never won gene- ral acceptance as second sur- names as they did in the rural districts of Norway. However, a few family surnames had struck root in Iceland long be- fore the Icelanders began to emigrate to North America in the latter half of the 19th cen- tury; in origin these surnames were either patronymics or derivatives of place names, in other words they represented the two types of surnames which under pressure from English name customs were to be rapidly expanded in Icelandic immigrant commu- nities in North America. * * * In 1888, after twelve years of Icelandic settlement in Winnipeg, Einar Hjörleifsson, the editor of Lögberg, an Ice- landic weekly in Winnipeg, had this to say about the name changes that were ap- pearing among his fellow countrymen in North Amer- ica: „Most Icelandic immigrants have two sets of names, one Icelandic, the other non-Icelandic.... Some of these men appear to have a whole repertory of names on which they can draw as circum- stances may require. To illustrate this point a certain man, when he has just arrived here from Ice- land, calls himself by the name of Sveinn Grímsson, and Sveinn Grímsson is indeed the name he will be likely to use when he is among other Icelanders. But this same man has also another name, Sveinn Vestmann, which he re- serves for the signing of docu- ments. Among English speaking people, however, this man’s name is neither Sveinn Grímsson nor Sveinn Vestmann. To start with he may well permit the English to call him John Anderson. How- ever, that name is likely to ac- quire some distasteful flavour in the mind of its possessor and war- rant a further change from John Anderson to Thomas Edison or George Byron, when the man in question moves into a new com- munity. One Icelander has already gone as far as to list hlmself as Mr. Christ on a voter’s list here in Winnipeg.” (Lögberg, August 8, 1888, 2 (Engl. transl. by the writer).). On the above occasion Mr. Hjörleifsson had some con- structive suggestions to make. He urged people to retain their Christian names. On the other hand he recognized the necessity of adopting new fa- mily surnames urging people at the same time to show con- sistency in their use. “Lack of firmness in this respect”, Hjörleifsson said, “is beneath our dignity.” (Loc. cit.). Professor Haraldur Bessason. Even though Hjörleifsson’s criticism from 1888 was direct- ed at extreme cases, it reflect- ed a problem which many of the Icelandic immigrants had considerable difficulties in solving. Replies from numer- ous people who were asked questions about name changes agree that it often proved un- satisfactory to adopt as family surnames such common Ice- landic patronymics as Björnsson (Bjorns(s)on), Jóns- son (Johnson), and Guðmunds- son (Gudmundsson). If there were many Björnssons or Jónssons in the same settle- ment, Icelandic neighbours would still be able to distin- guish between such name- sakes by using given names unabridged, and if that was not sufficient, they could add a nickname or identify the person with a place name from his native district in Iceland. On the other hand North American postal and govern- ment authorities paid no at- tention to Icelandic customs and followed the established Anglo-Saxon tradition of plac- ing the main emphasis upon the surname, abbreviating or even leaving out the given name. The following excerpts from letters will explain this point further: “My father Björn Guðmundsson Núpdal, adopted the family sur- name Núpdal after he came to America, because his mail would often be sent to the home of a namesake who shared the services of the same post office.” “Jón Björnsson adopted the sur- name Snæfeld because another Jón Björnsson used the same post office as he.” “My grandfather, Pétur Jóns- son settled in a district in Saskat- chewan among so many Jónssons that he was compelled to adopt the surname Norman. When doing so, he had in mind his native district in northern Iceland.” In addition to the above ex- cerpts there is an interesting account of Jón Jónsson who was hired by a railway com- pany in Winnipeg along with 10 other Icelandic Jón Jóns- sons. The employer solved his problem by assigning each Jón Jónsson a number. One of the Jónssons, however, disap- proved of this practice and adopted the name Hurdal which he derived from his native valley in Iceland Hörðudalur. The source on which this chapter is based contains a list of some sixty AI surnames derived from Icel. topographi- cal names. Some of these have been anglicized to the point of being scarsely recognizable. The following will serve as examples (the Icel. model is listed in parentheses; the ab- breviation AI stands for North American-Icelandic): Axford (Axarfjörður), Bardal (Bárðardalur), Eyford (Eyjafjörð- ur), Fljozdal (Fljótsdalur), Hof- teig (Hofteigur), Hornfjord (Hornafjörður), Lundal (Lundar- reykjadalur), Midford (Miðfjörð- ur), Oddstead (Oddsstaðir), Ruth (Hrútafjörður), Skafel (Skafta- fellssýsla), Skardal (Gönguskörð), Strong (Strönd), Thistilford (Þistilfjörður), Vopni and Wopn- ford (Vopnafjörður). There are examples where names of the above type con- tain a translation of an Icel. topographical name. One in- formant indicated that Hill- man contained a translation of the Icel. bakki (bank, eleva- tion). When patronymics were being adopted as family sur- names, many of them received an anglicized form. The fol- lowing list will illustrate this point: Anderson (from Andrésson or Árnason), Benson (Benediktsson, Benjamínsson, Björnsson), Bearn- son (Bjarnason), Byron (Björns- son), Gillies or Gillis (Gíslason), Goodman, Goodmon, Goodmanson (Guðlaugsson, Guðmundsson), Henderson (Helgason), Howard (Hávarðarson), Johnson, Johnston (Jónsson, Jóakimsson, Jóhannes- son), Martin (Marteinsson), Ole- son (Eyjólfsson), Olson (Ólafsson), Simpson, Siverz (Sigurðsson), Stephansson, Stephenson, Steven- son (Stefánsson), Summers (Sum- arliðason), Swinburne (Svein- bjömsson), Tait (Teitsson), Thompson (Tómasson), Thornson (Þórarinsson), Thorson (Þórðar- son), Walters, Wallerson (Sig- valdason). In several instances family surnames were derived from given names: Alfred (Alfreð), Geir (Geir), Julius (Júlíus), Wolfe (Úlfar). In some cases AI family surnames, Icelandic or English in appearance, bear no re- semblance to the patronymics they replaced. There are such instances as Jameson for Eyj- ólfsson, Johnson for Ingólfs- son, and Oddson for Jóhanns- son or Þorbergsson. There are numerous ex- amples where in daily life Icel. Christian names have been given an anglicized form. A few examples follow with the Icel. name in parentheses: Allie (ASalheiður, the Icel. shortened name Alla, often used endearingly for Aðalheið- ur probably served as an in- termediary form in this case), Alice (Ástríður), Barney (Bj örn, Bj arni), Bert (Dagb j art- ur), Betty (Elísabet, cf. the shortened form Beta), Benney (Brynjólfur, cf. the form Binni), Ed (Eiður), Ellen (Elín), Gudi (Guðbrandur), Henry (Hinrik), Hal, Harold (Haraldur), John (Jón, Jónas, Jóhannes), Roger (Ragnar), Walter (Valdimar, Þorvaldur). Several informants reported that when they selected English names for their chil- dren they patterned such names after Icel. names of re- latives (living or deceased). Thus there are instances where Doris was named for Halldóra, Garry for Geiri, Grover for Gróa etc. To this may be added that shortened forms of Christian names often prevail over unabridged names in daily speech. This is particularly noticeable among English monolinguals who find the latter easier to pro- nounce. Thus we have Siggi for Sigurður, Sigga for Sig- ríður, Mundi for Guðmundur and so on. A fairly extensive survey of given names among second and third generation North American — Icelanders show- ed over 60% with Icel. given names, over 20% had Icel. and English names; about 20% had English names only. The number of purely Icelandic Christian names is perhaps un- reasonably high, because the present survey was based on names from predominantly Icelandic areas. In districts where the Icelanders were few and far apart the ratio between Icelandic names and English names would probably be different. In the last three or four de- cades there has been a rapid- ly growing trend from purely Icelandic given names to pure- ly English names in AI com- munities. This is mentioned in numerous letters to the pre- sent writer. A minister with many years of service had this to say in 1957: “During my 26 years of service as minister, I have christened hundreds of children. When I first began my work, Icelanders still retained the custom of naming their children for relatives. This custom is now only rarely ob- served. In English foreign names often receive a distorted pronun- ciation, i. e., if people try to pro- nounce them at all.” Another informant has this to say: “Unfortunately, Icelandic names are seldom used nowadays as you can judge from the names of my youngest children” (these names are listed in the informant’s let- ter). The third person writes: “In our family English names were not used until the third generation when both Icelandic and English names began to be used.” The church records of The First Icelandic Lutheran Church in Winnipeg for the year 1920—1921 show the fol- lowing proportion between the three categories of Chris- tian names, i.e., purely Ice- landic, Icelandic and English (or vice versa), and purely English: 31% of baptized children received purely Icel. names, 22% were given both English and Icelandic nemes (one English and one Icelandic or the other way around), and 47% received purely English names. In 1950 a great change had taken place with only 3% of children receiving purely Icelandic names, 15% Icel. and English, and 82% with purely English names. The same kind of survey for the Ardal parish near Arborg in Manitoba shows for 1920—1921 57% of names purely Icelandic, 27% Icel. and English, and 16% English or non-Icelandic; in 1950 purely Icelandic names were not recorded, 38% were mixed (Icel. and English), and 62% purely English or non- Icelandic. The above survey does not only reflect a change in name giving customs in AI com- munities, it also reflects a rapid increase in intermar- riages between Icelanders and people of other national origin during the period in question. II Twenty five place names of Icelandic origin have received approval for Manitoba by the Canadian Board of Place Names. These are mostly names of post offices, rural districts (municipalities), vil- lages, and hamlets. Some of the names reflect the growth of trees (Víðir or Vidir, Lund- ar); others refer to topo- graphical features of lake shores or river banks (Vogar, Árbakka). Then there are names with historical signi- ficance (Baldur, Bifröst or Gimli, all of them from Old Norse Mythology. Official place names of Ice- landic origin in Manitoba are listed below in alphabetical order; geographical location is given by latitude and longi- tude and if applicable by sec- tion township and range. These are the names: Arbakka, a post office south east of Winnipeg, 49 65’ 96 30’ (20-1-8-E); Arborg, a village south west of Riverton, 50 55’ 97 15’ ((23-22-2-E); Arnes, a hamlet on the south west shore of Lake

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