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Swedish names How important isn’t it with names. Much of your identity is in your name. We have studied names in our class: The meanings of our names, the origin, the history and the frequency. Also what we like our names. The school work
All of us have been very interested in the work with names and we have also learned the Swedish name tradition.Popular names today
The most popular names in Sweden which parents gave their children in 1998 were:
The oldest names
The oldest known Swedish names are written on runic stones from the Viking Age. Some examples of names from that age are Ingrid and Sven. With the introduction of Christianity they started to use Christian names from Latin and Greek for example Katarina and Johannes. During the Middle Ages the German immigration led to German names like Greta and Ulrik becoming common. Names from the new time
In the 16th century after Sweden had changed religion from Catholicism to Protestantism names from the Old Testament in the bible became very popular. A name like Maria had been unthinkable to give a girl during the time of Catholicism because that was the name of Jesus' Mother. Boy names from the Old Testament exist already during the Middle Ages but it became more common during this time with names like Daniel.During the 17th century further borrowing of German names like Hedvig and Lennart appeared again. France was an influence during the 18th century with names like Marianne. The English influence started before the 19th century and also English names became modern for example names like Charles and Mary.
After the Second World War English and American names became popular because of all the moviestars in the movies for example Roger and Jenny.We have also borrowed Italian names. One of the girls in my class has the name Angela and that name comes from Italy. As you see many of our names are borrowed from other countries. Many of them are all the same in all Europe. But most of the names are real Scandinavian. What do your names mean to you? © 1999 Freeway Writer: Kristina Jonsson (sp01-15@park.se). HTML by: Andreas Westin (nv01-23@park.se). Profiles |