Wierd! 8 Secret Rules of Iceland’s Naming System

Just yesterday, Iceland defeated England in the ongoing 2016 EUROS competition to become one of the few teams from a small country of the world to reach the quarterfinals stage of an international tournament like the 2016 EUROS.

Incredible, right?

Well, we’re not talking football; rather we’re discussing the Iceland’s naming system, their rules and naming systems.

You haven’t been to Iceland, have you?

Now, this is what you’ve been waiting for. Iceland has a naming system that is obeyed by Icelanders whose total population is about 400,000. Icelandic female names differ from Icelandic male names as well as surnames.

Let’s take a look at some of the rules of Iceland naming system…

• Icelanders don’t have family names except few who inherited it, many of whom are of foreign origin.
• A woman from Icelander doesn’t answer the husbands name upon marriage to a man as is done in many cultures. They believe that it is improper for a woman to be addressed as another man’s daughter.
• All Icelanders must choose their names and that of their children from a list of about 3700 names which are prepared by a three-man panel set up by the government to serve as guardians of Icelandic culture. Iceland shares a common cultural origin with countries such as Norway, Denmark and Sweden but doesn’t use the same naming system used by these other Scandinavian countries.
• When choosing a name, one is permitted to use both parents name as last name i.e. patronyms and matronyms.
• Most Icelandic names end with son/dottir. Ending letters of a name such as a or ar are replaced by the suffix son/dottir. For example, popular Iceland footballer Heldar Helguson goes by his mother’s name, Helguson, son of Helga.
• A newborn child isn’t named in Iceland until after three months of birth. During that period, the child is referred to as Stalka (for girls) and Strakur (for boys).
• Before naming a child, Icelandic parents have to submit the desired names to the Icelandic Naming Committee otherwise called Mannanafnanefnd after they must checked the names to see if it meets the criteria for submission. These criteria ensures the chosen names contains only letters of the Icelandic alphabet of which English letters such as C and Z are absent from. More so, the desired name must not in any way conflict with the linguistic structure of Iceland. Names such as Christa and Carolina are changed to Krista and Karolina with Icelandic alphabets.
• Due to the fact that many people may bear similar names, Icelanders often differentiate themselves using their middle names. It is pertinent to note that everyone is called by their first name in Iceland since there are literally no surnames. Even the President is addressed formally or informally by his first name.

That’s quite some rules…

I wonder if there’s any other country that protects its language like this.

In conclusion, owing to the fact that names have already been set, many people make do with what they have.

But not so in the case of a 15-year old girl that recently won a case against the naming committee. Blaer Bjarkardottir was until she won the case referred to as Stalka (Icelandic name for females/girls). She rather chose to answer Blaer (Icelandic name for males) which means light breeze. She drew international attention and was subsequently allowed to choose the name of her choice after a court ruled in her favor.

Rules controlling Iceland’s naming system is quite interesting.

I wonder what my name would sound like in Iceland. Perhaps Couturedottir or Cribson… What about you?

Special thanks to WSIMAG and THEGUARDIAN