Ibsen (family)

Ibsen is a Norwegian family of Danish extraction. Its most famous members are playwright Henrik Ibsen, his son, statesman Sigurd Ibsen, and grandson, pioneer film director Tancred Ibsen. Several other family members have been noted artists.

The name Ibsen is a "frozen" patronymic, meaning "son of Ib." Ib is a Danish variant of Jacob. The name became frozen in the 17th century, while this practice was only widely adopted in Denmark in the 19th century and in Norway from around 1900. The phenomenon of patronymics becoming frozen started in the 17th century in bourgeois families in Denmark.

The family's earliest known ancestor is Rasmus Ibsen (1632–1703), a merchant in Stege, Denmark. Rasmus Ibsen's son, ship's captain and merchant Peter Ibsen (died 1765), settled in Norway as a burgher of Bergen. Peter's son Henrik Ibsen (1726–1765) became a ship's captain in Bergen. After his father died early and his mother Wenche Dishington remarried, Henrik's son Henrik Johan Ibsen (1765–1797) grew up in the household of parish priest Jacob von der Lippe, his stepfather. After Henrik Johan Ibsen, a ship's captain and merchant in Skien, died at sea outside Hesnes, his widow Johanne Plesner remarried to ship's captain Ole Paus, and their son Knud Ibsen grew up in the Paus household at Rising in Gjerpen. Knud Ibsen had several half siblings, among them judge and Member of Parliament Christian Cornelius Paus and banker and shipowner Christopher Blom Paus. Knud Ibsen married the niece of his stepfather, Marichen Altenburg (a daughter of shipowner Johan Andreas Altenburg and Hedevig Christine Paus), and became a prominent merchant in Skien. Knud and Marichen Ibsen were the parents of playwright Henrik Ibsen (married to Suzannah Thoresen), who in turn was the father of Prime Minister Sigurd Ibsen (married to Bergliot Bjørnson, the only daughter of Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson) and grandfather of film director Tancred Ibsen (married to Lillebil Krohn), novelist Irene Ibsen Bille (married to Josias Bille) and Eleonora Ibsen. Tancred's only child was diplomat Tancred Ibsen, Jr.

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