Iceland review - 2014, Qupperneq 44

42 ICELAND REVIEW
to which there wasn’t a unanimous answer.
Clinging on to the old naming system
was considered old fashioned and outdated
and perhaps might even give the impres-
sion that icelanders themselves were out of
touch (which they kind of were) and that
was a sensitive subject. others were quite
content with the old system and thought
icelanders should stick to it; it had worked
perfectly since settlement, when ingólfur
arnarson and Hallveig Fróðadóttir turned
up, each bearing their own surname (or so
the Sagas tell us)—as have all married cou-
ples from then on. Be true to who we are,
they said, let’s not throw away a perfectly
workable, not to mention unique, naming
system that has served us for centuries.
foREiGn nAMEs WiDEn Mix
on the grounds of the uniqueness of the
icelandic surname system, laws were passed
which banned family names and even
forced foreigners moving to iceland to
take up an icelandic last and first name.
This didn’t apply to all, however. Those
icelanders who already had family names
could keep them—and pass them on from
parent to child—and it seemed as if some of
our new settlers were famous enough that
it didn’t matter if they had a not-so-icelan-
dic-surname. The matter seemed to strike
the respective authorities as something
have a daughter, Guðrún, who is then
Sigurðardóttir, and before anna got mar-
ried to Sigurður she had a son, Kjartan,
with another man, Tryggvi, and thus his
name is Kjartan Tryggvason. So within
this hypothetical—and yet so real—fam-
ily we have four different surnames:
Jónsdóttir, Halldórsson, Sigurðardóttir
and Tryggvason. Complicated to some, but
really icelandic in every way. and this is
what is considered important to preserve
and maintain.
Since 1991, in the name of equality, it
has been legal to be known as the daugh-
ter or son of one’s mother instead of one’s
father; so my own daughters could decide
to be Bennýjardóttir instead of Óskardóttir
(their father’s name is Óskar), and my son
could be Bennýjarson instead of Óskarsson.
They could even be both! Bennýjar- og
Óskarsdóttir and Bennýjar- og Óskarsson
(with or without a hyphen and in any
order).
even though human rights trump tra-
dition, causing naming laws to be mod-
ernized, and some icelanders have family
names, they are the exception that proves
the rule. But overall, we, as a nation, are
still very much arnarson and Fróðadóttir,
all those years later. *
of an impolite gesture, so when a world
renowned pianist was granted icelandic
citizenship, no one asked: “Mr vladimir
ashkenazy, do you mind calling yourself
valdimar aðalsteinsson?” i don’t think any-
one did at least, but those not-so-famous
(or not-famous-at-all) had to change their
names to good solid icelandic ones.
later we came to our senses regard-
ing new icelandic citizens and since 1996
they no longer have to change their names
(not even if they are complete nobod-
ies) because it goes against their human
rights. Family names with a foreign and
even exotic ring to them—which icelanders
sometimes have no idea how to spell or
pronounce—are thus becoming more and
more common, but it’s still forbidden to
create a new icelandic family name. and
why? Because it’s considered to be of com-
mon interest to maintain the old naming
system; so most of us will keep on being
arnarson and Fróðadóttir.
in tHE nAME of tHE fAtHER
(oR MotHER)
it’s all for the public good. For the icelandic
nation as a whole, who loves to explain
to foreign friends how ‘unique’ our nam-
ing system is. Within one family of four
there may be anna Jónsdóttir, who is now
married to Sigurður Halldórsson and they
trAditioN
son
and
dóttir
Benný Sif Ísleifsdóttir is a folklorist, who covered
this subject in her 2013 BA thesis.