Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.1967, Page 8

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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