A name is a very important thing for the human being. Your name is a personal charisma. I have asked 25 people about their names. All of them, except one, was pleased with their first name. Just one of them wanted to change the Christian name. The answer on the question "If you would change your name, would you take your middle name?" was that only four of them would take the middle name the others would have taken another name.

There are three types of names according to the Law of names: first (Christian) name, middle name and surname. The rights and the obligations in connection with names are regulated by the Law of names. The law was developed by the Swedish National Registration Authority and the Court of Law.
	"What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet." Romeo+Juliet by William Shakespeare

Rules about the name

Every child that is born has to have a name. It could be one or several names. The announcement about the name must submitted to the Local tax office within three months. The Swedish name law decides if the name should be allowed.

A name must:

• not be offensive
• not cause problems
• not have a last name as a first name.
• not be a title of a famous star
• not be a famous work of a art
• not be misleading for the public, a name similar to a train station or a post office.
• not be a name which someone else has the sole right to.
• not be a name which a product or a trademark has the sole right to

Some names that have been rejected:
Brunstgnägg = heat neigh
Lovejoy
Montana
Asterix

The last name

If the parents have different last names, there are different rules about the surname that the baby should carry:

• If the parents have a common child, from before, the new baby automatically gets the surname of the last born kid.
• If the baby does not have any siblings, the baby gets the last name that the parents notify, to the Local Tax Office.
• If the parents do not notify, the baby gets the mother's surname. The same thing would be in effect if the father is unknown.

About changing the first name.

If you are unhappy about your first name you can, if you want to, change it. By notifying to the Tax Authority you can amend, delete or add one or several names. Even though you can change your name, you have to keep one of your baptismal name. If you want to change all your first names you have to notify to the Swedish Patent and Registration Agency. You can just send one announcement for free, next time you have to pay for your name change.

The most usual first names in Sweden
Every spelling counts as a single name. Almost 90% of the Swedish people have a middle name too. There are about 119 000 female first names in Sweden "but only" 95 000 male names.
The most usual female names in Sweden are:
Name Number 1 Maria 450 196 2 Anna 312 965 3 Margareta 272 791 4 Eva 195 584 5 Elisabeth 191 532
	The most usual male names in Sweden are:
	Name Number 1 Erik 314 856 2 Lars 244 561 3 Karl 228 063 4 Anders 195 332 5 Per 175 531

What rule the trend of names?

The trend of Swedish names are influenced by time, the endless factor. You can find a tendency of the names, it seems like the names omit three generations. The names of our parents´ grandparents are usually the names that we use today. Popular TV series have also an effect on the names. Among the children that were born in 2001, there are some babies that have got their names from a famous person or a TV character.

Take a look at these names and may be you can find what source of inspiration the parents had:
Zorro Gandalf Frodo Ludmilla Foppa Zlatan Sven-Göran Keith-Richard Christopher-Robin
Tindra is the most popular newcomer on the top of names. Since the middle of the 90´s the name has gained more than 50 times.
The most wanted girlnames 2001 are:
Tindra Tilda Smilla Thea Stella Tyra
	The most wanted boynames 2001 are:
	Liam Hugo Viggo Noel Melvin Maximilian

Would you like to change your name?

What name would you give your child?
© 2003 Freeway
Writers: Christine Arnqvist (sp04-02@park.se).
HTML by: Sean Karlsson (te04-11@park.se).