Icelandic name

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• published: 16 Oct 2014
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Icelandic names differ from most current Western family name systems by being patronymic (occasionally matronymic) in that they reflect the immediate father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage. Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Norway, Sweden and Denmark with its crown dependency the Faroe Islands. Icelanders, however, unlike other Scandinavians, have continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used by all Nordic nations. (The system has recently been re-introduced as an option elsewhere in the Nordic countries. Current legislation in Denmark (since 2005), the Faroe Islands (since 1992), Norway (since 2002) and Sweden (since 1982) allows the use of patronymics as a replacement for (or addition to) traditional surnames.) The Icelandic system is therefore not based on family names (although some people do have family names and might use both systems). A person’s surname indicates the first name of the person’s father (patronymic) or in some cases mother (matronymic). Some family names do exist in Iceland, mostly inherited from parents of foreign origin, while others are adopted. Notable Icelanders who have an inherited family name include former prime minister Geir Haarde, football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen, actor Magnús Scheving, film director Baltasar Kormákur Samper, actress Anita Briem and member of parliament (and former news reporter) Elín Hirst. Before 1925, it was legal to adopt new family names; one Icelander to do so was the Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness while another author, Einar Hjörleifsson and his brothers all chose the family name "Kvaran". Since 1925, one cannot adopt a family name unless one explicitly has a legal right to do so through inheritance. This video is targeted to blind users. Attribution: Article text available under CC-BY-SA Creative Commons image source in video