Iceland review - 2014, Qupperneq 42

40 ICELAND REVIEW
son and
dóttir
My name is Benný Ísleifsdóttir
and i’m icelandic. My surname,
Ísleifsdóttir, means ‘daughter of
Ísleifur.’ My father’s surname, however, was
Gíslason, ‘son of Gísli,’ and my grandfa-
ther’s surname was Þorsteinsson, because
his father was Þorsteinn. it’s a bit compli-
cated but that’s because icelandic surnames
are individual, not hereditary.
The system of hereditary surnames came
from the romans in the tenth century and
from there it spread throughout europe.
The elite, i.e. the aristocrats, had a taste for
surnames and realized how they could be of
benefit to them in preserving and passing
on their prestige.
tHE loWER clAssEs cAtcH on
The custom of using hereditary surnames
became the standard practice through-
was that the new hereditary surnames
matched only those who could actually
inherit something more than a name from
their parents.
tHE nEW HYpE cAusEs DEbAtEs
The increase in hereditary surnames
brought about heavy discussion within
society, since icelanders had for centuries
got used to being the daughters and sons
of their fathers. abandoning the nam-
ing system they had been brought up to
believe was unique and distinctive caused
dispute among the public, and also among
intellectuals and politicians. Should the
icelandic people welcome the new system
of hereditary surnames, like most of their
fellow europeans already had? or should
they continue being daughters and sons of
their fathers? That was a tricky question,
Remember the 15-year-old girl, simply registered as stúlka (‘girl’) in the
National Registry, who sued the Icelandic state—and won—to have her
given name Blær approved? The case, and similar ones since, caused
widespread debate in Iceland and made international headlines. Here
we take a look at a separate naming issue, that of Icelandic surnames,
which are individual, not hereditary.
By Benný Sif íSleifSdóttir PHOTO By PÁll StefÁnSSon
out europe over the next few centuries.
Somehow, inheriting a name was less of
an issue to the lower classes but eventually
filtered its way, gradually, from the higher
ranking to those belonging to the lower
classes.
in iceland this was somewhat different.
at the turn of the 20th century, hered-
itary surnames were relatively uncom-
mon; they had spread most in the upper
classes, which consisted primarily of those
icelanders who had traveled abroad, either
for trade or education, and had there-
fore been introduced to this new custom.
They were also used by foreigners who
had moved to the country, often officials,
merchants or craftsmen, carrying along
their own family names. There were, how-
ever, the odd farmers and laborers who
also welcomed the custom but they were
relatively few and thus the understanding