Swedish name

In Sweden, a person must have a surname and one or more given names. Two given names are common. Surnames are inherited from the parents, in the order of "same as elder sibling, if any; specified by parents; or mother's last name," while given names must be chosen by the parents at birth. The calling name (Swedish tilltalsnamn, French Prénom usuel) by which the person is normally identified in conversation, is in Scandinavian countries (and previously in France) one of the given names, not necessarily the first. In contexts where the full name is spelled out, the calling name is often indicated by an asterisk, by capital letters, or underlines or italics. For example, Märta Birgit* Nilsson is known as Birgit Nilsson, while Agnetha* Åse Fältskog is known as Agnetha Fältskog.

In Scandinavia, patronymic surnames based on the father's first name were common. In Sweden, the patronymic ending is –sson, e.g. Karlsson ("Karl's son"). During the 19th century these "son names" were transformed into permanent family names. At about the same time, people of the Scandinavian middle classes, particularly artisans and town dwellers, adopted family names in imitation of the gentry. Ornamental family names joining two elements from birthplace or nature, such as Bergman ("mountain man"), Holmberg ("island mountain"), Lindgren ("linden branch"), Sandström ("sand stream") and Åkerlund ("field grove"), were quite frequent and remain common today. For a table of the elements that form such names, see [1].

Another source of surnames was the Swedish allotment system, which from the mid-late 17th century was organised to maintain a standing army, and where a number of farms were grouped together and then supported a soldier with a small cottage and piece of land. The soldiers were often given names either describing their character (e.g. Modig 'brave', Skarp 'sharp' or Snygg 'handsome'), weapons (e.g. Sabel 'sabre', Lans 'lance' or Sköld 'shield') or names joining two elements from nature as above. The name often followed the cottage rather than the soldier. These soldiers' names became very common.

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