UPDATE: In 2019 Iceland stopped differentiating names on gender. This means that now any approved name can be given to anyone one regardless of gender. Apologies that this information only made itself present to me AFTER I made this video. Read more about it here: www.icelandreview.com/news/icelandic-names-will-no-longer-be-gendered/
Why all the apologies? Don't you think this pc has gone way too far already? 3:15 Why do you have to be apologetic towards an act that you have absolutely no part in? The extra disclaimers just makes the video less factual, less spontaneous, less interesting. Just say it as it is. I don't think those ancient Irishmen would ever complain.
Yay! That limitation seems like it would have been such a headache for trans people over there, especially compared to the UK where you've just got to write your name on a bit of paper in the presence of a couple of people who aren't related to you, and so long as it's not a swear word you'll be fine.
@@gunnamarta9096 Yes but in the example the icelandic woman's last name is Eriksson, while it should be Eriksdóttir. If her husband takes her last name he'd be "Robert Eriksdóttir"
@@PhoneHalHome the Icelandic for child id barn I think, so Eriksbarn? I don't personally think it sounds too bad but I wonder whether the Icelandic naming committee would agree.
America should bring in a naming committee purely for celebrities who often seem to name their children absolutely ridiculous things. At least half of Musks children have questionable names but all seem very regular and sensible when it comes to that poor childs name.
She might be named that if she was born in another country which doesn't allow her to be named after her father but take her father's surname. Then when she'd move back to Iceland she would have 'Eirikson" as a family name.
I'm from Iceland and if you are Eiríks daughter it's Eiríksdóttir and if son then Eiríksson. But it is possible for a female to have for example Jonson as a surname but it does not have anything to do with the Icelandic surname sistem.
I actually quite like that Iceland has such a rigid naming system, especially with the criterion that _"the name should not subject the named to harm or hardship"_ because I have heard some names.....
Many countries have a rule that you can't name your child anything that is likely to get them bullied or give them other disadvantages. But they get to do that without holding onto ancient things
Yeah, but they sometimes forget that rule when it comes to old, traditional names... for example it's perfectly okay to name a child Ljótur/Ljót, which literally means Ugly...
We also have that rule in my country. You can't name your child brands, swear words, geographical names (except for a few which are somewhat common names) and words that may be detrimental or offensive to the child. If the clerk at the registering office deems the name you chose to be inappropriate they can refer your case to a court that may force you to choose another name.
A few corrections: most people in Iceland have middle names and additional first names is not a thing in Iceland, Leif is not a name in Iceland but Leifur is and Eriksson is not quite right either it would rather be Eiríksson, Goðleifur is not a name but Guðleifur is and guð meaning god, you are allowed to be named Alex and I know a few of them, we do have family names that some families have used through decades but it’s pretty rare, some people replace their last name (for example Eiríksson) completely with the family name but some put it after their last name, my family name is Hjörvar but I haven’t legally put it at the end of my name. This was a very good video and it only had minor errors. Most of the non Icelanders that try to explain this make a lot more errors than you did so don’t worry about it! All the other stuff was pretty spot on, well done!😃
@@dutchgameboi2892 it’s not an Icelandic name and he is talking about Icelandic names dude... it’s still not correct to use that name when talking about Icelandic names because... well, it’s not Icelandic and he is talking about Icelandic names
@@mattas3781 Icelandic is derived from Norse... he can use a Norse name as an example because it used the same system... and also Leif Erikson was a big historical figure, almost everyones heard of him and how he found America, there arent really any big historical Icelanders I can think of to use an example
@@dutchgameboi2892 omg dude, he isn’t called Leif Erickson in Iceland, his name in Icelandic is Leifur Eiríksson, none of what you just said matters because it’s not an Icelandic name, the name committee doesn’t accept it as an Icelandic name BECAUSE IT ISNT ICELANDIC and I don’t know if you watched the video but it’s about Icelandic names and he was using that name as an example for an Icelandic name, it’s very simply incorrect to say that that is an example of an Icelandic name when it literally isn’t. He wasn’t doing an example of a Norse name he was making an example of an Icelandic name, get over yourself dude.
4:00 as an Icelander, this is false. Yes it's impressive how similar the older and current Icelandic is and we can certainly sort of read trough the original text or understand singular words, but the language has changed over time and the language syntax is significantly different as well as certain different words being used now but not then as well as some used then but not now. You imply here that an Icelander could pick up pick up the old sagas and read them as they would a modern book and that's simply not true
Technically you are correct. But if you look at it from a distant perspective, then you are not. :) Look at it this way. When you read the sagas you roughly get an idea what the text is about. Compare this to a native English speaker reading Old English. They rarely pick up a single word. If they do, this word most likely has changed its meaning over time. So, they even get that one wrong. Fun fact: If you are fluent in the northern German dialect you can outperform them with ease. Still a lot of guess work though and nowhere near to reading sagas if you are fluent in Icelandic.
Given that he compared it to 16th century Early Modern English being understood by a speaker of 21st century Modern English, which is totally possible for an educated native adult, that may have been what he was trying to say. However, I agree it didn't come across that way.
We have a naming committee in Finland, but they don’t demand people to change their original names. Also unusual mames are allowed if there is proof the name is a real name in another culture where the babys family is from.
It's the same in Iceland :) They used to make immigrants get an Icelandic name when applying for citizenship (they could just add it and make it their middle name) but it's not required anymore and hasn't been for at least 30 years. If a baby is born in Iceland to non-Icelandic parents then they can name the child whatever they want. A child does not automatically get Icelandic citizenship just for being born in Iceland. If a baby is born to immigrant parents, or parent, who hold Icelandic citizenship then it's like you said about Finland: "unusual names are allowed if there is proof the name is a real name in another culture where the baby's family is from."
Wow, the amount of Icelanders in the comment section is surprising, for a country of 360,000 or so people they are very active on the internet. Good for them, I really enjoyed reading all of your comments. They were helpful in helping me understand this video and some of its inaccuracies. I also must say it is nice of Name Explain to make an attempt at Icelandic naming nad language.
would be great if he had actually consulted with icelandic people though instead of going "I heard this somewhere and this and this" and getting so much wrong..
@@OverlordValky Time for you to make a great video correcting what according to some other locals wasn't that bad....and frankly, the rest of the world is not going to remember the spelling of most of those beautiful names....only the basic information, which seems to be fairly decent....
Why is my comment getting attention now? It's been 7 months. I'm going to try and remain unbiased as I am not an Icelander and don't want to rashly give me opinion. But it's nice to see the opinion of an actual Icelander and to see that Salas gave a response that shared his point of view.
I can tell you that when my sister (Harriet) and I weren't allowed to be called our names it was very sad. But hey we won and now we've got our names back. Very good 😊
That also happens to foreign women who marry Icelanders abroad and come to iceland. Also, its 95% of the people using this traditional naming, but its also allowed for these other 5% to carry a family name like in other countries. Also if they are born raised and marry in Iceland. And thats not just done for foreigners setting roots, it comes from the Danish influence, its mostly Danish names. So its not all black and white. Alex is also a legal name, many kids are named Alexander, though some might have it written as Aleksander. Modern names sip through as well, they get more flexible with time. However, I do not see it as a good thing. Im all for freedom, but names set also a culture, and if the world is flooded by all the same names, we loose part of our genetic identity. Just my thought, I am not Icelandic myself, I live there, but my name translates easily (its in fact believed to be the most common double female name in Iceland) and in not legal instances I use the Icelandic version. Anna Maria.
@@AnnaMaria-zm8cv sorry I know that it’s been a few months since you made this comment, but I had a quick question. As a non-Icelander, is there a particular reason why you’ve “translated” your name for unofficial purposes? Is it to help conserve/in respect of the language like they aim to do with the naming laws anyway, or for a sense of belonging/to better assimilate with Icelanders?
This is not a thing, we're more than aware of foreign naming conventions and know that the "-son" suffix is common in other countries. No one bats an eye at a woman having "-son" in her last name (also some Icelandic family surnames also end in "-son" so there are a bunch of Icelandic women named that way too).
@@AnnaMaria-zm8cv Preserving a tradition for its own sake is nonsensical. Every tradition must be subjected to evaluation when making a decision about its status. The -son and -daughter suffix surname naming conventions, alongside changing the prefixes for every new generation's father/mother, for different genders in Icelandic and Eastern European cultures are alright… when the size of the interactive population was a small village.
Icelandic person here, the second rule for the committee has been abandoned, the one about the genders has been abandoned by law since 2 years ago if I'm not mistaken.
I'm glad to hear that. That was the only part of the naming rules that seemed contradictory. If the name is not supposed to harm the named person, then insisting someone be named after their assumed gender doesn't make sense. Do you know the reason the rule was dropped? Was it due to changing ideas about gender identity and gender roles or was it due to some unrelated cultural shift?
I'm just glad that it's literally impossible to be gender neutral if you think in Lithuanian. There is only masculine or feminine, and every noun is either one or the other.
"Islandic has been described as the most conservative northern language, it still hast things like three genders, a variety of cases for nouns and a complicated verb system" Me: *nervous German noises*
I don't know whether German can be called a "northern language". It is a Germanic language just like the Scandinavian languages, but Dutch and English are Germanic languages too.
@@randomdude2026 You're right it's not. German, English and Dutch apparently form the western Germanic languages while the Scandinavian languages are also called the northern germanic languages. I just learned that too. That said, German like Islandic still has all these complexities like three genders that those other languages got rid of ages ago. That's what I was referring to.
@@Flugzeugdreger Italian is a pretty conservative language too, i can still read stuff from 1450, some words aren't used anymore but almost all of them are, I just need a dictionary.
Regarding your question on more grammar around Icelandic names: The names have to fit into the Icelandic case system, cosisting of four cases Nominative (nefnifall) Accusative (þolfall) Dative (þágufall) Genitive (eignarfall) For example: Eiríkur Nom./nf. Eiríkur Acc./þf. Eirík Dat./þgf. Eiríki Gen./ef. Eiríks This applies to all Icelandic names. Therefore, to have a valid name in Iceland, your name has to have a form in all of these cases. Not all forms have to be unique, there are many names with the same form in several cases, like the female name Björk: Nom./nf. Björk Acc./þf. Björk Dat./þgf. Björk Gen./ef. Bjarkar I can't come up with any names from the top of my head that have been added to the language and given forms to fit the cases, but maybe some Icelanders can. I'm just a Norwegian with great interest in the Icelandic and Old Norse language. So, please, if any Icelanders or anyone else have anything to add - feel free
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
Logi Svarthöfðason, or Logi Anikinsson. Back in the day when soldiers left a lot of single moms in Iceland, Hansson and Hermansson became quite popular choices. But today children are just named to their mom if the father is absent/not known, so Anikin Shmisson. That said, last names are not unheard of and are in fact legal if there is a tradition, so I’m guessing the Skywalker family would have just retained their last names and Luke would be: Logi Geimgengill, as well as his father Anikin Geimgengill.
My old doctor was named Haukur Heiðar Hauksson, after his father, Haukur Heiðar Ingólfsson, so it happens :) interesting to see foreigners find it wild though
Thanks for covering Icelandic names. It can cause confusion abroad, for example when married Icelandic couples book hotels and the hotel staff assume they aren't married due to their different last names. This has happened to my parents on several occasions. Here are some notes (since I've had some interest in the rules of Icelandic names): 8:23 - The application where Alex was rejected regarded naming of a female. It had already been defined as a male name. As per the rule of the time, no name could be used for both genders (as per the pinned comment). Adolf is on the list of approved names for males, as an FYI. 9:42 - We call this explorer Leifur Eiríksson. In the Old Norse it's spelt Leifr Eiríksson as it was a common shorthand in writing (skin wasn't cheap). 10:36 - *Alansson and *Alansdóttir. 11:36 - Not accurate. The names are not combined like that, but rather they would have one patronymic name and a matronymic one (in either order). Kevin's could be Kevin Önnuson Jónsson and Beth's could be Beth Önnudóttir Jónsdóttir (or the two later names in reversed order). 12:07 - You are allowed to take your spouse's or parent's surname, if you want, at any time. 12:21 - She'd also be allowed to be Anna Hamilton Erikson... although in Iceland's naming tradition her last name would've been Anna Eiríksdóttir, assuming she's a daughter of Eiríkur. 12:36 - An Icelander widely known as Jón Gnarr wanted to change his name to reflect that but the authorities didn't accept it. He utilised a later opportunity to circumvent that restriction when he moved temporarily to the US. He changed his name there by a court ruling, and presented it when he moved back. It was accepted, I guess grudgingly. The Icelandic naming committee has some guidance rules when deciding if an application for a new name on the list is accepted or not, for example how many Icelanders born in Iceland had that name and are still alive, how many born in a certain time span had that name, if it can be located in the Icelandic sagas, if it can be found in certain censuses. If it's a given name, if it follows the grammar rule regarding the possessive case, and if it's a middle name, that it's the same in all four cases.
Intreresting item about Jón Gnarr, it reminded me of an old Scottish tradition which is also widely accepted in England: that of changing one's name by Deed Poll. It simply consists of announcing the new name one want to be known as, and if nobody objects to it within a year, it becomes legally binding. As an example, this was how Reginald Dwight became Elton John.
@@the11382 No, you can keep your name as it is. If you change it via the Icelandic authorities while you live in Iceland, the changes would have to comply with the Icelandic law.
It happens elsewhere. Macedonian males put the suffix "sky" (pronounced "skee') on their surnames and females put "the suffix "ska" at the end of their surnames, it makes a brother and sister appear to be unrelated.
@@michaelhalsall5684 in many Russian speaking countries (or maybe other Slavic languages as well) surnames are also different by gender but at least you can see some relation between them. (E.g. the husband of Belarussian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaja is called Sergey Tikhanovsky)
@@edcrichton9457 Yes, but those were monasteries established in populated areas. The supposed ones in Iceland were more like hermits retreating into the deserts in the early days of Christianity.
@@krissclips731 Ég bætti nafni mömmu minnar. Leiddist einn daginn og gekk upp í þjóðskrá. Þurfti að fylla út eitt eyðublað, kostaði ekkert og tók svona 10 mínútur :Þ
There's an Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir, who's the daughter of Björk Guðmundsdóttir and Matthew Barney. She has a metronymic because "Matthew" isn't an Icelandic name. Icelandic has the word "fíll" (elephant) which is from Arabic, cognate with Hebrew פיל.
They can also opt for this in Iceland to carry metronymic name, like when a female chooses to be single mom or used a donor. Also if the father is unknown they can make a name up. You'd be surprised how much Hermanssons & dóttirs are out there. They are all love babies from US soldiers that served at the NATO base. Often dads unknown or just the name given out of this relationships. None of them likely had a father named Herman.
Matronymic. To give the full name, it's Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney. Similarly, there is a Sindri Eldon Þórsson, whose father is Þór Eldon Jónsson. And there's a Einar Örn Benediktsson, whose son is Kaktus Örn Einarsson
Icelander here. I literally just made a project about names. We have Skarphéðin, bergljót, Korga, Melkorka and more weird names. I have name máni meaning moon. And Nótt as night. So someone can be names Dimma Nótt (dark night)
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
I want to add that Norwegian also still has three different genders. Standard Swedish and Danish still have two, common-gender (Masculine and Feminine together) and Neuter. Many Norwegian dialects also have cases.
No Norwegian dialect has kept the full four-case structure of Old Norse. There are some that have kept remnants of, say, a dative after some propositions (eg. "opp i fjella"). Other dialects have kept an accussative form of a pronoun as a nominative (eg., oss and okke/okka. The spoken language has usually kept either han (nominative) or ham/honom (accusative) but both in writing; this does not apply to the feminine hun/henne; the difference is kept in the spoken language). There are also some set phrases where a geneitve ending has been kept, most notablyb perhaps: til lands, til sjøs, til vanns, til salgs Genrally speaking, the four case system is visible in the form of the pronouns, most specificallt in writing. Nouns and adjectives do not take a case ending.
@@eivindkaisen6838 There are dialects that to some degree keep a distinction between the accusative and the dative in nouns. In the example you mentioned "opp i fjellet(accusative)" is for movement up to the mountain, while "opp i fjella(dative)" is for when something is already in the mountain. And while the distinction between han and ham/honom is less common, some still keep it. My own dialect, more among older speakers, have both the accusative-dative distinction and distinguish han and hono(the m has been lost). The dialect(language?) of Setesdal has retained cases(less than Icelandic and Faroese, more than other continental North Germanic languages), inflected numbers, and plural forms of verbs though.
It seems like most of the things I wanted to correct have been addressed by other Icelanders. So you were putting the non possessive version as the last name where we use the possessive version. My father is called Ari but the possessive version is Ara hence my last name is Arason. You name Patrekur would end up as Patreksson or Patreksdóttir. My kids would be Ólafsson and Ólafsdóttir. You've probably noticed the -ur on some mens names. So the feminine version of my name is Ólöf. But then again the base of my name is Ólaf. We have inherited these gender specific markers on the names and haven't dropped them like the Scandinavian countries.
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
@@Cej660 you used to forced to take up an Icelandic name. I believe that has been relaxed. We do allow for family names, like my mother has a family name in addition to the traditional last name. But it's really rare
FACT: Indonesia's first woman president was Sukarno's daughter named *Megawati Sukarnoputri.* Icelandic surnames: Son/Dottir Indo-Malay surnames: Putra/Putri
"Perhaps in a different timeline Iceland remained a Scottish Island and would be a part of the UK today" - yeehhh . . . Scotland isn't exactly ecstatic about being part of the UK these days, I imagine Iceland would've been gone decades ago - maybe around the same time as Ireland 😅😅
@@anthonyholroyd5359 True, but if the Scots really had cemented their ownership over Iceland, then I doubt they’d leave - Ireland had a native population, after all. And, regardless, Iceland’s population was far, far lower than Ireland’s at the time, and still is. Google it.
@@antioconstantinicaea9989 Well aware of how small Icelands population is . . . I think the distance and isolation wouldve have led to significant cultural divergence regardless of how firmly any nation cemented any claim of control over Iceland.
This is just an educated guess; But I'm guessing that at some point during the last century the Brits woulds have allowed Iceland to become a commonwealth nation, kinda like Canada or New Zealand.
I’m Icelandic and i’ve never met someone named annajonson or efter a step parent. My grandpa had no father so he was named after his grandpa. BTW in my class there are three guys with the same name as me
This annajons and stepparent stuff is very wrong. The only instance that someone has it is from a none legal way and does it to also include their mother in their name
@@IceViolet13 You can take the patronym of an adopted parent although I never met anyone that did it. The dual last name is getting more and more common in resent years and is legal. My brothers daughter is Melkorku- og Hafþórsdóttir.
Oh, you should do a companion video to this, covering Iceland's unique genealogical records that go back centuries or more. There's even an app so you can check if someone you're chatting up in a bar is too close a relative!!
Good for them. There is a balance in celebrating culture, moving forward with global progress, and retaining rights. It's their culture; let them figure it out.
A thing that is commonly forgotten about when Icelandic names are being discussed. We have over 27.000 Icelanders using family surnames mostly of foreign origin. Most of which came from immigrants from Scandinavia (such as Thorarensen, Hansen, Olsen, Nielsen) or Germany (Möller, Waage, Kemp, Proppé, Scheving) while some were created for Icelandic people who registered their family name before this practice was banned in the 1920s (Blöndal, Egilson, Hjaltalín, Vídalin, Briem) I would also mention that the Annajóns thing I've never seen because the name Anna for use in last name would be declined to Önnu (genitive). Even though there are people challenging this naming convention in Iceland, the vast majority of people here think those challenges are silly and are often derided (that is when Icelanders are trying to change them not when foreigners immigrate).
@@katrose1145 That's cool. There are 86 people registered in the book of Icelanders with that name. Most I imagine only have it as their middle name as it derives from Arnarfjörður in the westfjörds. But I noticed several that used it as their actual surname. Earliest occurance was just around 1900.
Well, it sucks when you suddenly aren't allowed to be called your name. Was me and my sister just suppose to change our names? Like my dad said at 8:16 it's really rather silly.
That would be really intresting. In Germany the first two naming rules for first names also apply and if its an uncommon name or a foreign one you have to prove it is actually used as a name somewhere and then the authorities decide if the child would be harmed by that name. Last names are just Family names you just cant change them ever except for extreme circumstances f.e. your name is Hitler or something similarly bad or you go into witness protection. And of course marriage but even then only to your partners name (or the other way round) hyphanating has also pretty strict rules.
@@Serenity_yt hyphenation of surnames is pretty strict in the Netherlands too, when I was younger my mother was told that my Dutch passport could not have my hyphenated surname in it and was told to choose which one, to which my mum just put my surname in and the passport had the hyphenated name. However I think that's changed now, they didn't make a big deal after I renewed it
I've read that in England its illegal to name a child with a "title"; no Prince or Count or Duke. Often wondered what was their reaction when the great America musician Count Basie did concerts there ... BTW, the English in this video isn't correct, in particular the use of "unique". I often wish RUclipsrs would run their content through a spelling and grammar app, which are both common in writing programs. Certainly a video about language should use correct English.
Our English language keyboards don't allow us to write Eth or Thorn properly. It is good that he is actually using lower case eth rather than writing "d" or writing "p" for thorn
@@pangolin83 I sincerely doubt that a font wouldnt omit majuscule versions of the same character. Even if that were the case though, he coulda chosen one that would have full case for each letter :p edit: also i love your profile picture. pangolins are my favorite animal! :)
FACT: Indonesia's first woman president was Sukarno's daughter named *Megawati Sukarnoputri.* Icelandic surnames: Son/Dottir Indo-Malay surnames: Putra/Putri
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
I may be wrong, but I read that the Iceland Naming Committee recently approved all names to be genderless. Also they recently added Alex to the list of approved names. Many countries do disallow first names based on random shit. At least their rules are based on grammatical problems. As an example: the genitive of Björk is Bjarkar - it‘s not as easy as simply adding an s to any word like in english. (Even though for some words they do that too so I also wonder: where‘s the problem? Haha)
@@the11382 The laws only apply when people are given a name or change their name. If you legally carry a certain name where you lived before, you generally have the right to carry it in Iceland too.
Hello! Icelandic person here, and I have some.... experiences with the naming committee. Your video is pretty well researched, although I've personally never come across an example of both parents' names being in the child's last name, and I see some other Icelanders have corrected the name misusage. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer them to the best of my ability! Now onto those uhhh experiences. It started with my birth. My grandfather is supposedly Norwegian, and had the last name Nygaard. Mum wanted me to have the last name, and so, my full name was supposed to be Karen Rós Bjarnadóttir Nygaard (which isn't my name anymore, but I'll get into that). I was christened with that name, and legally carried it until I was about 9 months old. Mum got a phone call, where she was told I could not carry the name Nygaard, as my father didn't carry it, and he had to choose whether to be Gunnarsson or Nygaard, and he chose Gunnarsson. Thus, I no longer had the name. My legal name was then Karen Rós Bjarnadóttir. Fast forward to my childhood, where I didn't understand how a name can just be "taken away" and still called myself Nygaard. In my childhood and teenage years, I faced a lot of trauma, and wanted to distance myself from the name Karen, as my mental illness manifested in my name. I really liked the name Kat, but it doesn't follow Icelandic grammar rules, so I didn't bother to change it. I've been going by Kat since 2016, but most of my family only took me seriously in 2018. Now onto 2020, where I saw you could file an application to see if a name could be legal for barely any money, and my mother and I decided it was worth it to check if I could change my name. First, I got an email from the naming committee, telling me the name was denied. Oh well, I'll just keep going by Kat. A week or so later, Registers Iceland (people who manage social security numbers and names and such) sent me an email, saying the name was accepted, and provided a link where I could apply to legally change my name, for a bigger fee. This was big, as I'm led to believe you can only legally change your name once in your life in Iceland, but I went for it. I didn't hear anything from anyone for a while, but after a week or so, I noticed the insurance company had filed my name as Kat. This confused me, and I looked into other government approved accounts, and some of them had Karen, while others had Kat. A few days after that confusion, I got a snail mail, with papers proving my legal name is Kat Rós Bjarnadóttir as of may 28th 2020. That's fantastic, I'm happy, family is happy, everyone wins, right? WELL, a few days later, I get more mail, which I managed to piece together the context of through specific use of words. The naming committee SUED Registers Iceland for approving my name. Nothing ever came of it, I just got the mail about it because it involved me, and thankfully I still have the name, as it was ruled fair. Now, months later, I hear in the news every now and then about plans to dissolve the Naming Committee altogether, and I feel like Registers Iceland may have finally backed it up after the lawsuit, as they saw a fundamental disagreement that wouldn't be going away. Nothing has happened yet, but I think that was the start of the downfall we've been considering for decades now. We'll find out in the future I suppose. If the naming laws to get dissolved, I'll certainly add Nygaard as a second last name, as that's a much easier name to grasp for foreigners than Bjarnadóttir.
I have kind of a weird question. What name would you get if you have no known parents and no one adopts you? The nurses at the hospital named me, but what happens to abandoned babies in Iceland?
@@franceseast6592 I don't think I've ever heard of a case where that happened, only thing I've heard even close to that is when a father isn't known they'd go by "his-daughter" and "his-son". Orphanages don't even exist here, so abandoned babies probably don't either, as I tried googling about it too and didn't find anything!
I agree, and i also find it quite strange to see women having boys' names as first name, for instance the actress Kristian Alonzo. Or the actor Jensen Ackles whose first name is a nordic surname. SMH 🙄
@@michaelhalsall5684 Would you like some more fuel for your pet peeve? ruclips.net/video/Mq3_4VhCKiY/видео.html When even a black person finds those names bad, they're _REALLY_ bad.
In Germany we have something similar to that Name committee. I think we don't have a real committee, there are just some laws. For example my Name is Kim and I was not allowed to have that name only, because it can be used for boys and girls. So my parents were 'forced' to give me an additional Name or a middle Name. The Gender must be clear out of the Name.
The brief mentioning in Japanese names brings this up: In Japan, you're given a family name like how in English, there's probably someone named Mitsuki Kobayashi but in Japanese, non-family members call them Kobayashi Mitsuki So your first name Is also your last time But not really
It isn't just Japan. Or Asia for that matter. Family names go first in Hungary as well. This is why the terms 'first name' and 'last name' aren't very good.
To add, last time I checked (sometime in 2014-2016) you could not get an icelandic passport issued to a non-icelandic name, even if you were a full citizen, meaning if you had to stay in the country for any significant length of time, you would be forced to legally change your name in order to leave again, as you would need a valid iceland-recognized passport, which would automatically be rejected if your name didn't meet icelandic standards. Or you would need to revoke your icelandic nationality and try to get _asylum_ in the nation you were traveling to, if you weren't willing to do that and you were already an icelandic national.
Many surnames started out as patronymic last names, just like English Andrews, Andersen, Thompson, Jackson or tons of slavic names ending in -ic. Before there were proper surnames there may have been a dozen of Johns in a community, so if you had to be specific about a paricular John you said "John, the son of Jack" or "John, Jack's son" which finally evolved into John Jackson, with Jackson being used as a proper family name.
Would have to go through the nameing committee if their first name is not from Scandinavian or European background... because 'conservation of the Icelandic language'
Having a name with non-Icelandic letters isn't always a problem, f.ex I have an uncle named Zófanias and he gets to keep his name. The whole "Conforms to Icelandic grammar" has more to do with inflection, cases, and gender.
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
@@Cej660 In most cases, the committee will let you have one Icelandic name and one foreign name but the foreign name has to be written in the Icelandic alphabet. I'm not sure how it works with surnames, though. So if one of your parents is Nigerian, you may have one Nigerian name but if you have a Nigerian name you must also have one(or more) Icelandic name.
Icelandic names have a fairly long tradition and history but it is not unique. In medieval times people would usualy have their first name and had the father name as surname. This tradition is still aplied in some countries. Of course the big diference between Iceland and the other countries is that in the other countries the sufix for "son of" or "daugther of" disapeared and the mothers name started to enter in the surname list together with the father name. And also, some countries in Europe dont allow you to use any name you want, much like in Iceland. Portugal is one of those examples, altough it is aceptive to foreign names if they can be pronounced in portuguese or if they dont hinder our spelling of it if writen in the foreign language
I've always been intrigued by the naming customs in Iceland! You should look into Spanish-language naming customs! There's a reason for the trope that people from Spanish-speaking countries have almost comically long names, especially when compared to people from Anglophone countries. In the Spanish-speaking world (with the exception of Argentina, I've heard), most people have two surnames (apellidos): their father's first surname, and their mother's first surname, usually in that order. Many people also have compound first names, meaning, a first name (nombre) composed of two, or even more, names. This is particularly common if the _first_ first name is super common (Juan, María, José, Ana, etc.) and they need a more unique _second_ first name to distinguish them (like Juan Eliseo, María Carlota, José Luis, Ana Ofelia, etc.). -- E.g. Juan Elías Martínez Contreras -- E.g. María Carlota Fernández Arce -- E.g. José Luis Vicente Azcárrate Salazar -- E.g. Ana Ofelia Gutiérrez y Samaniego Many girls' names are Marian titles, meaning they're some permutation of "María de ___," such as María de las Mercedes or María de los Ángeles, which can makes their official names even longer. Most tend to just go by the non-"María de" part of their name where their official name is not necessary, hence "Mercedes" or "Ángeles." Also, women in heterosexual marriages don't usually take their husbands' surnames after they get married unless they specifically request it. Many Spanish-speaking countries have same-sex marriage (Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, many states in Mexico, Colombia, etc.), and while I don't know what the trends are for gay couples, I assume the pattern is roughly the same: they keep their original surnames. When it comes to adoption, however, I am unsure of how gay couples in these countries tend to name their adopted children.
Small addition. Some are given their mother's name instead, Kristínardóttir Kristínarson. This can happen if the father is foreign with an illegal name but more often it is when the father has never been in the picture. When I was young I perceived kids with their mothers name as problem childs with a difficult home. Learned later on the reasons for being given their mothers name and made some connections between broken domestic environments and behaviour of kids with their mothers name.
9:09 An Icelander with some fact checking :) You are missing the declension part of the committee accepting names. If the name can't easily be changed depending on the context then it will not be excepted 11:23 This declension will apply to last names as well. Here for example the name would be Önnujónsson and Önnujónsdóttir.
im icelandic and some of these names are weird to me. like Goðleifur, i have never heard that name but a good replacement would've been guðmundur because guð means God and its a name that many people have in iceland
I heard once that if you want to know what the language of the Vikings would have sounded like, just listen to Icelandic because of how little it has changed.
There are many sound changes that have occurred, but depending on your first language the difference may not be large enough to matter. You can look for reconstructed pronunciation of Old Norse.
They used to have that last name convention in Sweden, but turned away from it a long time ago. It actually caused issues for my grandfather when he was trying to figure out his ancestry until my uncle finally found documents that connected the new last name to the old last name from the old naming convention.
Abandoning the -daughter/son suffix surname naming convention is simply the rational thing to do when the size of the interactive population grows beyond that of a small village. ISL having an authoritarian naming regime is quite clownish, TBH.
If a married couple from a foreign country move to iceland, would they have to change their first and last names? Also would they be allowed to name their children whatever they want?
My parents are living in Iceland, and they did not have to change their name, and the kid who was born in Iceland did not have any ruls over what name it was given. Foreigners are exempt from the naming rules.
Foreigners used to be forced to change names, but this has been abandoned. Also, a large portion of the population uses nicknames that is not registered, but due to the language, the nicknames also adhere to Icelandic grammar.
People are not forced to change their names. There was a legal requirement at the time which mandated that each foreigner who gained Icelandic citizenship had have at least one part of their name Icelandic, but as far as I know it's not like this anymore. Foreigners are not exempted from the Icelandic naming laws so if they name their child in Iceland, its name must conform with the law. I must note that children of people with surnames and people who marry people with surnames can choose to use them as they would elsewhere.
well it was lied about all football players , Eiður Guðjohnsen is sen :P also we even have strict name rules for horses as there is horse naming cammittee :D
so Icelander here (look at my name) with a small interest in grammar. so the letters c,q,w,z just don't exist in Icelandic so you can't use them for Icelandic names. furthermore all names must be able to be bent in four ways: nominative, accusative, dative, and possessive. It's way more than just removing some letters for example my name comes in the forms: Dagur, Dag, Degi, Dags
We used to have "Z" in the Icelandic languageg but it was done away with by an idiotic minister of government who was probably lousy at spelling. And the written Icelandic is much poorer without it.
3 года назад
@@sirrykr1679 meh, it was replaced with "s" in all cases without issues. Simplifies spelling without introducing confusion. We probably should rid ourselves of the "ð" as well. "Þ" makes the same sound so we could probably do a simple find and replace for it IMHO
@ I totally disagree with you. We should protect our spoken and written language. Easier is not always better and no-one is going to protect our language if we do not do it ourselves.
3 года назад
@@sirrykr1679 we should protect Icelandic. But languages (especially written) evolve. I am afraid that being a prescriptivist and fighting the changes happening in the language too hard will cause the younger generations to abandon Icelandic in favour of a more flexible language. My philosophy in preserving the language is to try to make sure that Icelandic continues to evolve. I will admit I was being hyperbolic with the "ð" and "þ" thing but I see no reason to reintroduce the "z" into Icelandic.
Hungarian naming laws are similar: Hungarian names given to ethnic Hungarians must not cause harm to them, they have to obey Hungarian orthographic rules, and names belonging to one sex can only be given to children of that sex. So Jennifer could only be approved as Dzsenifer and be given to girls only. There is a Hungarian naming committee, too, which approves any newly created names and puts them into the list of available names. For example, Dakota was rejected because it is a unisex name in America(!). Ethnic minorities, foreign and/or multiple citizens or Hungarian citizens born to at least one foreign parent are exempt from most of these rules. If you declare yourself as ethnic German, for example, each minority group has its own list, and Jennifer is probably present on the German list, for example. Another thing to mention: the basic elements of patronymic/matronymic names have to be declined, the genitive shall be used in forms like Sigurđur --> Sigurdsson/Sigurdsdóttir, Jón --> Jónsson/Jónsdóttir, or Magda --> Mögduson/Mögdudóttir, Björk --> Bjarkarson/Bjarkardóttir, Anna --> Önnuson/Önnudóttir. Alan would be Alansdóttir, because -s is the genitive case ending. Annajónson is grammatically incorrect, that would probably never be accepted. Maybe Önnujónsson/Önnujónsdóttir would be acceptable. Duncan was only rejected because of the letter "c" because its declension would be fairly easy (probably Duncan/Duncan/Duncans/Duncani). Harriet is more problematic, but Harriet/Harriet/Harrietar/Harriet should have the trick done...
Alex was only rejected when parents wanted to name their girl, Alex. My name is Alex and I'm from Iceland so I'm living proof that it's allowed... just for males :)
@@elisasunny Elísa and Elísabet exist and Elizabeth was accepted. The committee has yet to judge a request for "Eliza" and it would be a hard bargain since nobody carries the name and "Z" is not an official letter in the Icelandic alphabet anymore. Source taken from - island.is/mannanofn
On 9:20 you asked for an explanation on Icelandic grammar. That would take a whole book. But for "Namewords" (Words for names of persons and objects) you basically have to have 8 versions of words, 4 for singular and 4 for plural. Common way to "bend" words are to use the pretext: Here is, about, from, to. So Guðmundur (one of our most common name) can also be: Guðmund, Guðmundi, Guðmundar/Guðmunds in singular and Guðmundar, Guðmunda, Guðmundum, Guðmunda. As you can see you can use the same form twice sometimes and the exact way you should "bend" words can be somewhat open to interpretation but for and non-scholar Icelander, like myself, it can be felt better than explained.
I am not against change I understant it's natural and part of life but i like preserve cultural beauty in all country and it's specialty. What if all people speak english and do culturally same things it's practical and easy but to me it would be colorless.
Faroese speaking (We have similar naming traditions as Iceland)*: You can also cross the name before "-son/-dóttir" across the sexes. For example: If there are two kids, one boy and one girl, then the boy will be named after the mother, and the girl after the father. So, if Alan is married to Helen, then the surnames would be: Bob Helensson and Linda Alansdóttir. Oh, and the "...fun words that are unique to Iceland that relate to names" - we have them, too. In indef. nominativ they are: F. sing: Navna // pl: Navnur. M. sing: Navni // pl: Navnar. ... and so on ... Let's make that: "... fun words that are unique to the insular scandanavian languages" ;) Great video!
TBF, insular in this context indicates cultural worldview rather than a geographical descriptor. Britain is also an island (well, GB + NIR + micro island dependencies), but the GBR gov. doesn't have these ridiculously reactionary naming laws in place.
In Belgium, technically, the alderman for civil affairs gets to reject names based on somewhat nebulous criteria ... though this is barely, if ever, enforced anymore. A somewhat famous case was of Belgian national goalkeeper Michel Preud'homme wanting to name his son Guilian, with an n at the end. Since Guiliam existed in Belgium, but not Guilian, he had to obtain an exert from the civil registry from a small town in Brittany to show that Guilian was an existing name.
FACT: Indonesia's first woman president was Sukarno's daughter named *Megawati Sukarnoputri.* Icelandic surnames: Son/Dottir Indo-Malay surnames: Putra/Putri
One thing I wanna add is that icelandic names are very often related to animals, plants or weather. For example my grandpas' names are falcon and bear, my grandma's name is a type of bird, my causin is named after a flower. People are also named day, sun, night, storm, fire etc.
I noticed this. I like his videos but his pronunciation of so many words puts me off, even place names in England,.or just ordinary English words. But I guess I've got used to it now
Fun fact: the Icelandic language is unavailable on iPhones, so you have to learn another language (most of the time it's English) just to use an iPhone.
@@resolvanlemmy Apple probably thinks it wouldn't be worth it. Lots of effort for very little returns. From a human perspective it's unfair, but from a business perspective it's good sense
The Icelandic naming system is really interesting, they know every single name that has been used for the last thousand years. Recently, a boy was named a name that hadn't been used for nearly around 1000+ years.
As an Icelander I can very much tell you that middle names are very very common in fact it’s kind of weird if you meet someone that doesn’t have a middle name
This reminds me of back in the day when many immigrants moving into English speaking countries used to anglicize their names to make it easier to assimilate better to their new homeland, but as far as I know, there weren't any special committees involved.
Immigrants anglicizing their names wasn't as innocuous as them just wanting to assimilate, it was also because American immigration officers and Americans in general couldn't , most likely wouldn't try to learn to pronounce different sounding names. Case in point, well known famed LA Mark Garagos , he was one of Micheal Jackson's lawyers for the last court case he was in. Most people dont realize that his last name os the shortened version of Gregorian , he's of Armenian desscent. John Stamos ( Uncle Jesse from "Full House" and "Fuller House"), is of Greek heritage, his great grandfather shortened the family name from Stamopolis to Stamos because immigration official couldn't pronounce the family name. The reason why JS' characters last name was Katsopolis was because he'd asked the show's creator (who was also head writer) , Jeff Franklin if Jesse's last name could be changed from Cochran to Katsopolis ( because I believe it'd been mentioned that Jess and his sister( Danny Tanner's late wife) had some Greek heritage and the rest of history.
I meant spanish names in south America. I had a peruvian friend who explained to me (what she called) the spanish naming system, where you have 2 first and 2 last names, and you get one last name from your mom and one from your dad. So you have the same double last name as your siblings, but different from either of your parents. And the first born son gets the fathers 1st first name as his 2nd first name and the same for first born daughter and mother
@Stay Blessed i don't really understand your question, but I'm half swedish, my name fits pretty well in both sweden and iceland i think? though tbf icelandic and swedish isn't SUPER different, so idk
My favorite naming culture is actually a fictional one. In dnd, elves are given a child name by their parents, and then when they become an adult, they choose a new name as an adult name. I think this is actually a really good system, it allows for people’s names to be personal, and actually representative of themselves rather than who their parents thought they might be. I honestly kind of wish that was common culture.
In my country, Lithuania, we also have an interesting tradition of writing family names. The surnames of our citizens are written only in Lithuanian (without qwx, which is very unlikely for local Poles). In our language, the end of the name changes due to grammar (for convenience, we even add Lithuanian suffixes to the names of foreign men), but we also have different suffixes for married women and girls.
Here in Iceland, recently the letter Z was taken out of the alphabet for being not native or something which meant that now we have to spell pizza as pítsa (same pronunciation) or flatbaka (a made up Icelandic word) sooooo yeah This was 47 years ago whoops*
UPDATE: In 2019 Iceland stopped differentiating names on gender. This means that now any approved name can be given to anyone one regardless of gender. Apologies that this information only made itself present to me AFTER I made this video. Read more about it here: www.icelandreview.com/news/icelandic-names-will-no-longer-be-gendered/
They also added a new surname ending for nonbinary people -bur, which apparently just means -child of
Why all the apologies? Don't you think this pc has gone way too far already?
3:15 Why do you have to be apologetic towards an act that you have absolutely no part in? The extra disclaimers just makes the video less factual, less spontaneous, less interesting.
Just say it as it is. I don't think those ancient Irishmen would ever complain.
Yay! That limitation seems like it would have been such a headache for trans people over there, especially compared to the UK where you've just got to write your name on a bit of paper in the presence of a couple of people who aren't related to you, and so long as it's not a swear word you'll be fine.
@@ebrahimalfardan8823 really? Get over yourself, everyone else has. This affects you in no way so relax.
@@ebrahimalfardan8823 this isn't a PC culture thing; Name Explain made a factual mistake in the video so they're apologising for the mistake.
12:14 Presumably she'd be "Erik[s]dottir", not "Erikson"
oooups
maybe it's a genderfluid person...
@@vrenak that makes me wonder what last name do non-binary people use if they don't go by -son or -dottir. Do they end it with something like -child?
@@gunnamarta9096 Yes but in the example the icelandic woman's last name is Eriksson, while it should be Eriksdóttir. If her husband takes her last name he'd be "Robert Eriksdóttir"
@@PhoneHalHome the Icelandic for child id barn I think, so Eriksbarn? I don't personally think it sounds too bad but I wonder whether the Icelandic naming committee would agree.
Everyone: "Iceland's naming committee infringes on freedom of speech!"
Elon Musk's kid: *I wish I had that when I was born.*
America should bring in a naming committee purely for celebrities who often seem to name their children absolutely ridiculous things. At least half of Musks children have questionable names but all seem very regular and sensible when it comes to that poor childs name.
@@darthsawlex8257 Doesn't Texas have a rule about the baby's name having to fit on the form?
It doesn't infringe on our freedom of speech.
Cringe op
Actually California has some of the most restrictive rules for names - even banning accents and the like.
Just doesn't ban that monstrrosity
I think, the name of the women would rather be Eriksdottir, not Eirkson.
She might be named that if she was born in another country which doesn't allow her to be named after her father but take her father's surname. Then when she'd move back to Iceland she would have 'Eirikson" as a family name.
@@gummi666 yeah but that doesn't fit the point he was makeing.
Eiríksdóttir, Eiríksson
Child of Eiríkur
I'm from Iceland and if you are Eiríks daughter it's Eiríksdóttir and if son then Eiríksson. But it is possible for a female to have for example Jonson as a surname but it does not have anything to do with the Icelandic surname sistem.
and he should know, literally went over it like 2 mins before.
I actually quite like that Iceland has such a rigid naming system, especially with the criterion that _"the name should not subject the named to harm or hardship"_ because I have heard some names.....
Many countries have a rule that you can't name your child anything that is likely to get them bullied or give them other disadvantages. But they get to do that without holding onto ancient things
Yeah, but they sometimes forget that rule when it comes to old, traditional names... for example it's perfectly okay to name a child Ljótur/Ljót, which literally means Ugly...
Dude this year a couple went viral for naming their kid "Hypertext Markup Language" Like man they sure loved their careers than their kid..
We also have that rule in my country. You can't name your child brands, swear words, geographical names (except for a few which are somewhat common names) and words that may be detrimental or offensive to the child. If the clerk at the registering office deems the name you chose to be inappropriate they can refer your case to a court that may force you to choose another name.
Yeah I don't think that's the part people take issue with
A few corrections: most people in Iceland have middle names and additional first names is not a thing in Iceland, Leif is not a name in Iceland but Leifur is and Eriksson is not quite right either it would rather be Eiríksson, Goðleifur is not a name but Guðleifur is and guð meaning god, you are allowed to be named Alex and I know a few of them, we do have family names that some families have used through decades but it’s pretty rare, some people replace their last name (for example Eiríksson) completely with the family name but some put it after their last name, my family name is Hjörvar but I haven’t legally put it at the end of my name. This was a very good video and it only had minor errors. Most of the non Icelanders that try to explain this make a lot more errors than you did so don’t worry about it! All the other stuff was pretty spot on, well done!😃
He said that some families have family names btw
Leif Erikson was Norse... I think he was just using him as an example mainly for the last name segment
@@dutchgameboi2892 it’s not an Icelandic name and he is talking about Icelandic names dude... it’s still not correct to use that name when talking about Icelandic names because... well, it’s not Icelandic and he is talking about Icelandic names
@@mattas3781 Icelandic is derived from Norse... he can use a Norse name as an example because it used the same system... and also Leif Erikson was a big historical figure, almost everyones heard of him and how he found America, there arent really any big historical Icelanders I can think of to use an example
@@dutchgameboi2892 omg dude, he isn’t called Leif Erickson in Iceland, his name in Icelandic is Leifur Eiríksson, none of what you just said matters because it’s not an Icelandic name, the name committee doesn’t accept it as an Icelandic name BECAUSE IT ISNT ICELANDIC and I don’t know if you watched the video but it’s about Icelandic names and he was using that name as an example for an Icelandic name, it’s very simply incorrect to say that that is an example of an Icelandic name when it literally isn’t. He wasn’t doing an example of a Norse name he was making an example of an Icelandic name, get over yourself dude.
4:00 as an Icelander, this is false. Yes it's impressive how similar the older and current Icelandic is and we can certainly sort of read trough the original text or understand singular words, but the language has changed over time and the language syntax is significantly different as well as certain different words being used now but not then as well as some used then but not now.
You imply here that an Icelander could pick up pick up the old sagas and read them as they would a modern book and that's simply not true
Same goes for dutch, which is also a surprisingly conservative language
Latin's not even the same as it was at the fall of the empire and that's been preserved by a single continuous entity.
Technically you are correct. But if you look at it from a distant perspective, then you are not. :)
Look at it this way. When you read the sagas you roughly get an idea what the text is about.
Compare this to a native English speaker reading Old English. They rarely pick up a single word.
If they do, this word most likely has changed its meaning over time. So, they even get that one wrong.
Fun fact: If you are fluent in the northern German dialect you can outperform them with ease.
Still a lot of guess work though and nowhere near to reading sagas if you are fluent in Icelandic.
Given that he compared it to 16th century Early Modern English being understood by a speaker of 21st century Modern English, which is totally possible for an educated native adult, that may have been what he was trying to say. However, I agree it didn't come across that way.
@@amiscellaneoushuman3516, Old English was spoken until late 11th century.
Can’t wait to import the latest “Legend of” Nintendo game in Iceland!
Legend of Seldur
The Legend of _____: Age of Calamity
I'm pretty sure the law doesn't apply to fictional characters and video games
The Legend of Zelda Kingofhyruledóttir
@@slyninja4444 r/wooosh
We have a naming committee in Finland, but they don’t demand people to change their original names. Also unusual mames are allowed if there is proof the name is a real name in another culture where the babys family is from.
It's the same in Iceland :) They used to make immigrants get an Icelandic name when applying for citizenship (they could just add it and make it their middle name) but it's not required anymore and hasn't been for at least 30 years.
If a baby is born in Iceland to non-Icelandic parents then they can name the child whatever they want. A child does not automatically get Icelandic citizenship just for being born in Iceland.
If a baby is born to immigrant parents, or parent, who hold Icelandic citizenship then it's like you said about Finland: "unusual names are allowed if there is proof the name is a real name in another culture where the baby's family is from."
what about Daenerys?
Wow, the amount of Icelanders in the comment section is surprising, for a country of 360,000 or so people they are very active on the internet. Good for them, I really enjoyed reading all of your comments. They were helpful in helping me understand this video and some of its inaccuracies. I also must say it is nice of Name Explain to make an attempt at Icelandic naming nad language.
would be great if he had actually consulted with icelandic people though instead of going "I heard this somewhere and this and this" and getting so much wrong..
Yes, one can only wonder...why spend so much time on the internet, when they could be at the beach, surfing or suntanning most of the year.....
@@OverlordValky Time for you to make a great video correcting what according to some other locals wasn't that bad....and frankly, the rest of the world is not going to remember the spelling of most of those beautiful names....only the basic information, which seems to be fairly decent....
Why is my comment getting attention now? It's been 7 months. I'm going to try and remain unbiased as I am not an Icelander and don't want to rashly give me opinion. But it's nice to see the opinion of an actual Icelander and to see that Salas gave a response that shared his point of view.
I can tell you that when my sister (Harriet) and I weren't allowed to be called our names it was very sad. But hey we won and now we've got our names back. Very good 😊
6:35 ah Harambe Nameexplainson
Doesn't sound unrealistic
Harambe Patriksson
Haramburen Patrikdottir
Hárambr Nameexplainsson
@@ehhe4381 i said that out loud and summoned harambe
I've heard lots stories of sweds going to Iceland and get weird looks for being a woman named "-son".
We do have foreigners here... And some people using family names so that's a bit weird.
That also happens to foreign women who marry Icelanders abroad and come to iceland. Also, its 95% of the people using this traditional naming, but its also allowed for these other 5% to carry a family name like in other countries. Also if they are born raised and marry in Iceland. And thats not just done for foreigners setting roots, it comes from the Danish influence, its mostly Danish names. So its not all black and white. Alex is also a legal name, many kids are named Alexander, though some might have it written as Aleksander. Modern names sip through as well, they get more flexible with time. However, I do not see it as a good thing. Im all for freedom, but names set also a culture, and if the world is flooded by all the same names, we loose part of our genetic identity. Just my thought, I am not Icelandic myself, I live there, but my name translates easily (its in fact believed to be the most common double female name in Iceland) and in not legal instances I use the Icelandic version. Anna Maria.
@@AnnaMaria-zm8cv sorry I know that it’s been a few months since you made this comment, but I had a quick question. As a non-Icelander, is there a particular reason why you’ve “translated” your name for unofficial purposes? Is it to help conserve/in respect of the language like they aim to do with the naming laws anyway, or for a sense of belonging/to better assimilate with Icelanders?
This is not a thing, we're more than aware of foreign naming conventions and know that the "-son" suffix is common in other countries. No one bats an eye at a woman having "-son" in her last name (also some Icelandic family surnames also end in "-son" so there are a bunch of Icelandic women named that way too).
@@AnnaMaria-zm8cv Preserving a tradition for its own sake is nonsensical. Every tradition must be subjected to evaluation when making a decision about its status. The -son and -daughter suffix surname naming conventions, alongside changing the prefixes for every new generation's father/mother, for different genders in Icelandic and Eastern European cultures are alright… when the size of the interactive population was a small village.
Icelandic person here, the second rule for the committee has been abandoned, the one about the genders has been abandoned by law since 2 years ago if I'm not mistaken.
I'm glad to hear that. That was the only part of the naming rules that seemed contradictory. If the name is not supposed to harm the named person, then insisting someone be named after their assumed gender doesn't make sense. Do you know the reason the rule was dropped? Was it due to changing ideas about gender identity and gender roles or was it due to some unrelated cultural shift?
That was a wretched mistake.
I'm just glad that it's literally impossible to be gender neutral if you think in Lithuanian. There is only masculine or feminine, and every noun is either one or the other.
Not a matter of vocabulary. Core grammatical structure.
er ég að rugla eða var það útaf gaurnum sem vildi heita sigríður eða eitthvað?
12:18 You broke the rule of Icelandic names there, shouldn't it be Anna Eriksdottir? :D
beat me to it :D
Yes, I saw that too!
Yes, it most certainly should.
I was looking for this comment!
So my last name should be henderdottir/henrisdottir not Henderson?
"Islandic has been described as the most conservative northern language, it still hast things like three genders, a variety of cases for nouns and a complicated verb system"
Me: *nervous German noises*
I don't know whether German can be called a "northern language". It is a Germanic language just like the Scandinavian languages, but Dutch and English are Germanic languages too.
@@randomdude2026 You're right it's not. German, English and Dutch apparently form the western Germanic languages while the Scandinavian languages are also called the northern germanic languages. I just learned that too.
That said, German like Islandic still has all these complexities like three genders that those other languages got rid of ages ago. That's what I was referring to.
@@Flugzeugdreger Lol, italian has three genders too.
@@flaviobest90 I didn't know that. Allways thought it had just two like the other Latinian languages French and Spanish.
@@Flugzeugdreger Italian is a pretty conservative language too, i can still read stuff from 1450, some words aren't used anymore but almost all of them are, I just need a dictionary.
Regarding your question on more grammar around Icelandic names:
The names have to fit into the Icelandic case system, cosisting of four cases
Nominative (nefnifall)
Accusative (þolfall)
Dative (þágufall)
Genitive (eignarfall)
For example: Eiríkur
Nom./nf. Eiríkur
Acc./þf. Eirík
Dat./þgf. Eiríki
Gen./ef. Eiríks
This applies to all Icelandic names. Therefore, to have a valid name in Iceland, your name has to have a form in all of these cases. Not all forms have to be unique, there are many names with the same form in several cases, like the female name Björk:
Nom./nf. Björk
Acc./þf. Björk
Dat./þgf. Björk
Gen./ef. Bjarkar
I can't come up with any names from the top of my head that have been added to the language and given forms to fit the cases, but maybe some Icelanders can. I'm just a Norwegian with great interest in the Icelandic and Old Norse language.
So, please, if any Icelanders or anyone else have anything to add - feel free
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
Vader Forceson: Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father
Luke Vaderson: He told me enough. He told me you killed him.
Darth Vader means dark father in Dutch if I remember correctly, so it was a giveaway anyways
Wouldn't that be "Luke Annakinsson?"
@@markcash2 Anakin had become Vader when Luke was born.
Logi Svarthöfðason, or Logi Anikinsson.
Back in the day when soldiers left a lot of single moms in Iceland, Hansson and Hermansson became quite popular choices. But today children are just named to their mom if the father is absent/not known, so Anikin Shmisson.
That said, last names are not unheard of and are in fact legal if there is a tradition, so I’m guessing the Skywalker family would have just retained their last names and Luke would be: Logi Geimgengill, as well as his father Anikin Geimgengill.
Veiði-Anakinn or Jarl Veiðr, Lukr Anakinsson,
When I was 14, my biology partner was Bjorn Bjornsson and I thought that was wild
Oh man, I can’t believe he was his own dad, that’s wild
Well, I guess that's the counterpart of Jr. in the English system
My old doctor was named Haukur Heiðar Hauksson, after his father, Haukur Heiðar Ingólfsson, so it happens :) interesting to see foreigners find it wild though
@@katrose1145 Um, we're not foreign, you are! LOL
@@inconnu4961 world doesn't not revolve around you🤦🏻♀️
You are foreign to them.
Thanks for covering Icelandic names. It can cause confusion abroad, for example when married Icelandic couples book hotels and the hotel staff assume they aren't married due to their different last names. This has happened to my parents on several occasions.
Here are some notes (since I've had some interest in the rules of Icelandic names):
8:23 - The application where Alex was rejected regarded naming of a female. It had already been defined as a male name. As per the rule of the time, no name could be used for both genders (as per the pinned comment).
Adolf is on the list of approved names for males, as an FYI.
9:42 - We call this explorer Leifur Eiríksson. In the Old Norse it's spelt Leifr Eiríksson as it was a common shorthand in writing (skin wasn't cheap).
10:36 - *Alansson and *Alansdóttir.
11:36 - Not accurate. The names are not combined like that, but rather they would have one patronymic name and a matronymic one (in either order). Kevin's could be Kevin Önnuson Jónsson and Beth's could be Beth Önnudóttir Jónsdóttir (or the two later names in reversed order).
12:07 - You are allowed to take your spouse's or parent's surname, if you want, at any time.
12:21 - She'd also be allowed to be Anna Hamilton Erikson... although in Iceland's naming tradition her last name would've been Anna Eiríksdóttir, assuming she's a daughter of Eiríkur.
12:36 - An Icelander widely known as Jón Gnarr wanted to change his name to reflect that but the authorities didn't accept it. He utilised a later opportunity to circumvent that restriction when he moved temporarily to the US. He changed his name there by a court ruling, and presented it when he moved back. It was accepted, I guess grudgingly.
The Icelandic naming committee has some guidance rules when deciding if an application for a new name on the list is accepted or not, for example how many Icelanders born in Iceland had that name and are still alive, how many born in a certain time span had that name, if it can be located in the Icelandic sagas, if it can be found in certain censuses. If it's a given name, if it follows the grammar rule regarding the possessive case, and if it's a middle name, that it's the same in all four cases.
Intreresting item about Jón Gnarr, it reminded me of an old Scottish tradition which is also widely accepted in England: that of changing one's name by Deed Poll. It simply consists of announcing the new name one want to be known as, and if nobody objects to it within a year, it becomes legally binding. As an example, this was how Reginald Dwight became Elton John.
So if I understand it correctly and I immigrated to Iceland, I would have to change my name, second name, third name and surname?
@@the11382 No, you can keep your name as it is. If you change it via the Icelandic authorities while you live in Iceland, the changes would have to comply with the Icelandic law.
It happens elsewhere. Macedonian males put the suffix "sky" (pronounced "skee') on their surnames and females put "the suffix "ska" at the end of their surnames, it makes a brother and sister appear to be unrelated.
@@michaelhalsall5684 in many Russian speaking countries (or maybe other Slavic languages as well) surnames are also different by gender but at least you can see some relation between them. (E.g. the husband of Belarussian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaja is called Sergey Tikhanovsky)
If monks are being good monks, they don't establish an indigenous population.
It is not that simple. Monasteries were often the nucleus of a community with associated peasants to work the land.
truly good monks wouldn’t care about immoral restrictions like that one.
@@edcrichton9457 Yes, but those were monasteries established in populated areas. The supposed ones in Iceland were more like hermits retreating into the deserts in the early days of Christianity.
The Irish church didn't practice clerical celibacy, much like the modern orthodox church.
@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts But the monks did.
Seeing the lower case ‘ð’ where all the other letters are capitals is cute ;Ð
đ is the same its called Eth examples Niđavellir
Hvað er nafnið þitt maður tvisvar sinnum son
@@krissclips731 Ég bætti nafni mömmu minnar. Leiddist einn daginn og gekk upp í þjóðskrá. Þurfti að fylla út eitt eyðublað, kostaði ekkert og tók svona 10 mínútur :Þ
@@rokksula4082 haha núna elska ég þig
There's an Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir, who's the daughter of Björk Guðmundsdóttir and Matthew Barney. She has a metronymic because "Matthew" isn't an Icelandic name.
Icelandic has the word "fíll" (elephant) which is from Arabic, cognate with Hebrew פיל.
They can also opt for this in Iceland to carry metronymic name, like when a female chooses to be single mom or used a donor. Also if the father is unknown they can make a name up. You'd be surprised how much Hermanssons & dóttirs are out there. They are all love babies from US soldiers that served at the NATO base. Often dads unknown or just the name given out of this relationships. None of them likely had a father named Herman.
Matronymic. To give the full name, it's Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney.
Similarly, there is a Sindri Eldon Þórsson, whose father is Þór Eldon Jónsson.
And there's a Einar Örn Benediktsson, whose son is Kaktus Örn Einarsson
Icelander here. I literally just made a project about names. We have Skarphéðin, bergljót, Korga, Melkorka and more weird names. I have name máni meaning moon. And Nótt as night. So someone can be names Dimma Nótt (dark night)
blessaður gjemli ég heiti dagur bara smá auka í bunkann þinn
@@svarswagbuckssuperman9916 geggjað. Gaman að sjá annan
Bergljot is a norwegian name as well. Though women called Bergljot are rarely under 50-60 years old.
@@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131 its a dying name for the ljót
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
2:07 "perhaps in a different timeline": so important that you gotta say it twice!
"Erikdottir and... Erikdottir. Sisters?"
"No, we just both have fathers named Erik."
I want to add that Norwegian also still has three different genders.
Standard Swedish and Danish still have two, common-gender (Masculine and Feminine together) and Neuter.
Many Norwegian dialects also have cases.
No Norwegian dialect has kept the full four-case structure of Old Norse. There are some that have kept remnants of, say, a dative after some propositions (eg. "opp i fjella").
Other dialects have kept an accussative form of a pronoun as a nominative (eg., oss and okke/okka. The spoken language has usually kept either han (nominative) or ham/honom (accusative) but both in writing; this does not apply to the feminine hun/henne; the difference is kept in the spoken language).
There are also some set phrases where a geneitve ending has been kept, most notablyb perhaps: til lands, til sjøs, til vanns, til salgs
Genrally speaking, the four case system is visible in the form of the pronouns, most specificallt in writing. Nouns and adjectives do not take a case ending.
@@eivindkaisen6838 There are dialects that to some degree keep a distinction between the accusative and the dative in nouns. In the example you mentioned "opp i fjellet(accusative)" is for movement up to the mountain, while "opp i fjella(dative)" is for when something is already in the mountain. And while the distinction between han and ham/honom is less common, some still keep it. My own dialect, more among older speakers, have both the accusative-dative distinction and distinguish han and hono(the m has been lost). The dialect(language?) of Setesdal has retained cases(less than Icelandic and Faroese, more than other continental North Germanic languages), inflected numbers, and plural forms of verbs though.
Would be cool to see a vid on my home (Faroe Islands) We're Iceland's small cousin, with our own language and culture, sinilar to Iceland
Sæll frændi
Does anyone know how to learn the faroe language? I find it so beautiful but idk where i can even start :(
Sæll frændi. Hvernig er sprittbrúsinn?
It seems like most of the things I wanted to correct have been addressed by other Icelanders. So you were putting the non possessive version as the last name where we use the possessive version. My father is called Ari but the possessive version is Ara hence my last name is Arason. You name Patrekur would end up as Patreksson or Patreksdóttir.
My kids would be Ólafsson and Ólafsdóttir.
You've probably noticed the -ur on some mens names. So the feminine version of my name is Ólöf. But then again the base of my name is Ólaf. We have inherited these gender specific markers on the names and haven't dropped them like the Scandinavian countries.
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
@@Cej660 you used to forced to take up an Icelandic name. I believe that has been relaxed. We do allow for family names, like my mother has a family name in addition to the traditional last name. But it's really rare
12:21 Holdup, wouldn't Anna be Eriksdottir instead of Erikson
FACT: Indonesia's first woman president was Sukarno's daughter named *Megawati Sukarnoputri.*
Icelandic surnames: Son/Dottir
Indo-Malay surnames: Putra/Putri
It is suposed to be Eiríksdóttir becouse she is not a boy
She would be named Anna Eiríksdóttir
"His name is Stitch"
"No, that's not a real name...... in Iceland... But here it's a good name!"
"His name is Ditch"
"No, that's not a real name...... in Iceland... But here it's a good name! Stitch it is."
Wow! I never got that joke!!
"Perhaps in a different timeline Iceland remained a Scottish Island and would be a part of the UK today"
- yeehhh . . . Scotland isn't exactly ecstatic about being part of the UK these days, I imagine Iceland would've been gone decades ago - maybe around the same time as Ireland 😅😅
Iceland has a far lower population than Ireland, so I doubt it
@@antioconstantinicaea9989 Do you? Given that in the current timeline Iceland has still become a successful independent nation?
@@anthonyholroyd5359 True, but if the Scots really had cemented their ownership over Iceland, then I doubt they’d leave - Ireland had a native population, after all. And, regardless, Iceland’s population was far, far lower than Ireland’s at the time, and still is. Google it.
@@antioconstantinicaea9989 Well aware of how small Icelands population is . . . I think the distance and isolation wouldve have led to significant cultural divergence regardless of how firmly any nation cemented any claim of control over Iceland.
This is just an educated guess; But I'm guessing that at some point during the last century the Brits woulds have allowed Iceland to become a commonwealth nation, kinda like Canada or New Zealand.
Many people in Iceland also name their child after a relative/person that is important to them! I’m named after my great grandmother🥰
That happnes in Mexico too!
I’m Icelandic and i’ve never met someone named annajonson or efter a step parent. My grandpa had no father so he was named after his grandpa.
BTW in my class there are three guys with the same name as me
Like, the exat same name or surname?
This annajons and stepparent stuff is very wrong. The only instance that someone has it is from a none legal way and does it to also include their mother in their name
@@sehr.geheim the same first name
@@IceViolet13 You can take the patronym of an adopted parent although I never met anyone that did it. The dual last name is getting more and more common in resent years and is legal. My brothers daughter is Melkorku- og Hafþórsdóttir.
Why don't you just have surnames?
Oh, you should do a companion video to this, covering Iceland's unique genealogical records that go back centuries or more. There's even an app so you can check if someone you're chatting up in a bar is too close a relative!!
Do they have a website
Good for them. There is a balance in celebrating culture, moving forward with global progress, and retaining rights. It's their culture; let them figure it out.
A thing that is commonly forgotten about when Icelandic names are being discussed. We have over 27.000 Icelanders using family surnames mostly of foreign origin.
Most of which came from immigrants from Scandinavia (such as Thorarensen, Hansen, Olsen, Nielsen) or Germany (Möller, Waage, Kemp, Proppé, Scheving) while some were created for Icelandic people who registered their family name before this practice was banned in the 1920s (Blöndal, Egilson, Hjaltalín, Vídalin, Briem)
I would also mention that the Annajóns thing I've never seen because the name Anna for use in last name would be declined to Önnu (genitive).
Even though there are people challenging this naming convention in Iceland, the vast majority of people here think those challenges are silly and are often derided (that is when Icelanders are trying to change them not when foreigners immigrate).
Scheving... ah boy... Sportacus's actor had that "surname"
YOOO my family created their own last name, Arnfjörð, and several family members moved to Norway, making it a last name there ;D
@@katrose1145 Amazing. I wanna be like that one day
@@IABITVpresents I'm so conflicted cause my dad's family has a last name so I would have three last names and that's excessive
@@katrose1145 That's cool. There are 86 people registered in the book of Icelanders with that name. Most I imagine only have it as their middle name as it derives from Arnarfjörður in the westfjörds. But I noticed several that used it as their actual surname. Earliest occurance was just around 1900.
I think the rule of names is they have to be Pronouncable by the human mouth. Sorry Elon Musks kid
It's pronounced KAL-EL
@@Person16384 I don't even think Finland can, and they're insane
XÆA-12 is pronounceable in iceland
what is pronounceable by the human mouth heavily depends on _which_ human mouth. For example, some people can pronounce gvprtskvni and some can't.
I love your image of Iceland smiling with the words Iceland and Names. Beautiful.
Icelandic: We have 'nafnar'
German: Oh yeah, that's what we call 'Namensvetter' ("cousin in name")
Ethiopia: mogshe
In Brazilian Portuguese : Chará
Dutch: naamgenoten
@@DocBanner makes sense, I like itn
Fascinating, great culture I fully support their point of view on preserving names/ language ❤️❤️❤️
Well, it sucks when you suddenly aren't allowed to be called your name. Was me and my sister just suppose to change our names? Like my dad said at 8:16 it's really rather silly.
Interesting. I'd like to know more about "name laws" in other countries too
That would be really intresting. In Germany the first two naming rules for first names also apply and if its an uncommon name or a foreign one you have to prove it is actually used as a name somewhere and then the authorities decide if the child would be harmed by that name. Last names are just Family names you just cant change them ever except for extreme circumstances f.e. your name is Hitler or something similarly bad or you go into witness protection. And of course marriage but even then only to your partners name (or the other way round) hyphanating has also pretty strict rules.
@@Serenity_yt hyphenation of surnames is pretty strict in the Netherlands too, when I was younger my mother was told that my Dutch passport could not have my hyphenated surname in it and was told to choose which one, to which my mum just put my surname in and the passport had the hyphenated name. However I think that's changed now, they didn't make a big deal after I renewed it
I've read that in England its illegal to name a child with a "title"; no Prince or Count or Duke. Often wondered what was their reaction when the great America musician Count Basie did concerts there ...
BTW, the English in this video isn't correct, in particular the use of "unique". I often wish RUclipsrs would run their content through a spelling and grammar app, which are both common in writing programs. Certainly a video about language should use correct English.
@@veralenora7368 Why would Count be banned in England? That title doesn't exist here.
In Spanish people that share the same first name are called "tocayos" (male/neutral plural) or "tocayas" (female plural)
In Greek it’s συνονόματοι
In brazilian portuguese it's "Xará", both for women and men
In American english its called . . . nothing. we dont give it a distinction.
In Arabic is "el semi" for male and "el semia" for female
In german it is "Namensvetter", literally "Namecousin".
I'm not sure, but even though "Vetter" is male, I think "Namensvetter" goes for female aswell.
When you're spelling names in all capitals like at 09:22, ð should be written Ð; ð is the lower case version.
As someone who can't speak or read Icelandic, I thought something looked off there and I just couldn't place it.. haha
The mixed casing is bugging me. The majuscule of eth is Ð.
Our English language keyboards don't allow us to write Eth or Thorn properly. It is good that he is actually using lower case eth rather than writing "d" or writing "p" for thorn
@@michaelhalsall5684 yeah but you can just copy paste really easily
@@qwxzy1265 Maybe the font doesn't have these characters
@@pangolin83 I sincerely doubt that a font wouldnt omit majuscule versions of the same character. Even if that were the case though, he coulda chosen one that would have full case for each letter :p
edit: also i love your profile picture. pangolins are my favorite animal! :)
FACT: Indonesia's first woman president was Sukarno's daughter named *Megawati Sukarnoputri.*
Icelandic surnames: Son/Dottir
Indo-Malay surnames: Putra/Putri
As an Icelander. Im incredible impressed by your research. 😍
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
I may be wrong, but I read that the Iceland Naming Committee recently approved all names to be genderless.
Also they recently added Alex to the list of approved names.
Many countries do disallow first names based on random shit. At least their rules are based on grammatical problems. As an example: the genitive of Björk is Bjarkar - it‘s not as easy as simply adding an s to any word like in english. (Even though for some words they do that too so I also wonder: where‘s the problem? Haha)
Not really the committee, but rather a change in the naming laws.
Does it really go retroactive? If so, I would have to change my name, second name, third name and surname. And my second name contains a “c”.
@@the11382 The laws only apply when people are given a name or change their name. If you legally carry a certain name where you lived before, you generally have the right to carry it in Iceland too.
I mean if I was Icelandic my name would be Falgeir Haraldson which is badass so
Volkner is not an Icelandic name
Hearing you pronounce alnöfnur is the best thing that has happened to me this week
Hello! Icelandic person here, and I have some.... experiences with the naming committee. Your video is pretty well researched, although I've personally never come across an example of both parents' names being in the child's last name, and I see some other Icelanders have corrected the name misusage. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll answer them to the best of my ability!
Now onto those uhhh experiences. It started with my birth. My grandfather is supposedly Norwegian, and had the last name Nygaard. Mum wanted me to have the last name, and so, my full name was supposed to be Karen Rós Bjarnadóttir Nygaard (which isn't my name anymore, but I'll get into that). I was christened with that name, and legally carried it until I was about 9 months old. Mum got a phone call, where she was told I could not carry the name Nygaard, as my father didn't carry it, and he had to choose whether to be Gunnarsson or Nygaard, and he chose Gunnarsson. Thus, I no longer had the name. My legal name was then Karen Rós Bjarnadóttir. Fast forward to my childhood, where I didn't understand how a name can just be "taken away" and still called myself Nygaard. In my childhood and teenage years, I faced a lot of trauma, and wanted to distance myself from the name Karen, as my mental illness manifested in my name. I really liked the name Kat, but it doesn't follow Icelandic grammar rules, so I didn't bother to change it. I've been going by Kat since 2016, but most of my family only took me seriously in 2018. Now onto 2020, where I saw you could file an application to see if a name could be legal for barely any money, and my mother and I decided it was worth it to check if I could change my name. First, I got an email from the naming committee, telling me the name was denied. Oh well, I'll just keep going by Kat. A week or so later, Registers Iceland (people who manage social security numbers and names and such) sent me an email, saying the name was accepted, and provided a link where I could apply to legally change my name, for a bigger fee. This was big, as I'm led to believe you can only legally change your name once in your life in Iceland, but I went for it. I didn't hear anything from anyone for a while, but after a week or so, I noticed the insurance company had filed my name as Kat. This confused me, and I looked into other government approved accounts, and some of them had Karen, while others had Kat. A few days after that confusion, I got a snail mail, with papers proving my legal name is Kat Rós Bjarnadóttir as of may 28th 2020. That's fantastic, I'm happy, family is happy, everyone wins, right? WELL, a few days later, I get more mail, which I managed to piece together the context of through specific use of words. The naming committee SUED Registers Iceland for approving my name. Nothing ever came of it, I just got the mail about it because it involved me, and thankfully I still have the name, as it was ruled fair.
Now, months later, I hear in the news every now and then about plans to dissolve the Naming Committee altogether, and I feel like Registers Iceland may have finally backed it up after the lawsuit, as they saw a fundamental disagreement that wouldn't be going away. Nothing has happened yet, but I think that was the start of the downfall we've been considering for decades now. We'll find out in the future I suppose. If the naming laws to get dissolved, I'll certainly add Nygaard as a second last name, as that's a much easier name to grasp for foreigners than Bjarnadóttir.
I have kind of a weird question. What name would you get if you have no known parents and no one adopts you? The nurses at the hospital named me, but what happens to abandoned babies in Iceland?
@@franceseast6592 I don't think I've ever heard of a case where that happened, only thing I've heard even close to that is when a father isn't known they'd go by "his-daughter" and "his-son". Orphanages don't even exist here, so abandoned babies probably don't either, as I tried googling about it too and didn't find anything!
@@katrose1145 I'm just picturing myself walking around with no last name 😂
Good riddance, I just had a fight with an Ethno Nationalist who thinks the worst part about the US is Multiculturalism
@@katrose1145 how does the naming system work when a child is born in Iceland to one Icelandic parent and the other parent is of different nationality
2:40
I love the idea of an “insular island” when you think about the etymology of those words
I think it makes a sort of sense if you consider the solitary existence of Iceland as opposeed to islands in an arcipelago.
Search for island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island. Mindblowing. :D
Similarly in Denmark
I abhor such monstrosities as Jackson Jaxon, surnames as fore names, Jorja and the like.
I agree, and i also find it quite strange to see women having boys' names as first name, for instance the actress Kristian Alonzo. Or the actor Jensen Ackles whose first name is a nordic surname. SMH 🙄
I hate deliberated mispelt (invented) names like "Shampayn'" (Champagne) l or "Kwinsee" (Quincey) which are allowed here in Australia.
@@michaelhalsall5684 Would you like some more fuel for your pet peeve? ruclips.net/video/Mq3_4VhCKiY/видео.html
When even a black person finds those names bad, they're _REALLY_ bad.
@@michaelhalsall5684 I saw an American kid named "Cavalli" on a RUclips channel. Cavalli just means horses in Italian lmao
In Germany we have something similar to that Name committee. I think we don't have a real committee, there are just some laws. For example my Name is Kim and I was not allowed to have that name only, because it can be used for boys and girls. So my parents were 'forced' to give me an additional Name or a middle Name. The Gender must be clear out of the Name.
The brief mentioning in Japanese names brings this up:
In Japan, you're given a family name like how in English, there's probably someone named Mitsuki Kobayashi but in Japanese, non-family members call them Kobayashi Mitsuki
So your first name
Is also your last time
But not really
It isn't just Japan. Or Asia for that matter. Family names go first in Hungary as well.
This is why the terms 'first name' and 'last name' aren't very good.
To add, last time I checked (sometime in 2014-2016) you could not get an icelandic passport issued to a non-icelandic name, even if you were a full citizen, meaning if you had to stay in the country for any significant length of time, you would be forced to legally change your name in order to leave again, as you would need a valid iceland-recognized passport, which would automatically be rejected if your name didn't meet icelandic standards. Or you would need to revoke your icelandic nationality and try to get _asylum_ in the nation you were traveling to, if you weren't willing to do that and you were already an icelandic national.
Reminds me of some Lord of the Rings lines. “Aragorn, son of Arathorn” for example.
That is what the "o' in O'Neil or the Mac or Mc Donal means Son Of Neil or Son of Donal.
Many surnames started out as patronymic last names, just like English Andrews, Andersen, Thompson, Jackson or tons of slavic names ending in -ic.
Before there were proper surnames there may have been a dozen of Johns in a community, so if you had to be specific about a paricular John you said "John, the son of Jack" or "John, Jack's son" which finally evolved into John Jackson, with Jackson being used as a proper family name.
this just reminded me that quenya elvish from tolkien also does the inflection thing where names have to work with the grammar
This whole video has just been really fascinating!
can someone tell me about second-generation immigrants? Do they have Ahmedsons or Kacpersons?
I have heard of an Icelandeemr with a surname simply being Hannigan
idk what kind of immigrancy was there but still
No. If you have a family name you can keep it, including your offspring.
However a 2nd generation immigrant will have a committee approved given name.
It would just be the family name, except if the father is Icelandic in which, the child would be given his name plus son as a last name.
Would have to go through the nameing committee if their first name is not from Scandinavian or European background... because 'conservation of the Icelandic language'
Having a name with non-Icelandic letters isn't always a problem, f.ex I have an uncle named Zófanias and he gets to keep his name.
The whole "Conforms to Icelandic grammar" has more to do with inflection, cases, and gender.
how it would work say for example a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic mother and a Nigerian father. Or vice versa a child is born in Iceland to a Icelandic father and a Nigerian mother. How would it work because obviously the example of Nigerian names they are very different to Icelandic names
@@Cej660 In most cases, the committee will let you have one Icelandic name and one foreign name but the foreign name has to be written in the Icelandic alphabet. I'm not sure how it works with surnames, though.
So if one of your parents is Nigerian, you may have one Nigerian name but if you have a Nigerian name you must also have one(or more) Icelandic name.
12:53 “fn” in this context would be pronounced “bn”
I think it's more weird that you can name children Boba Fett in some country than vice versa when you have to choose from normal names.
Icelandic names have a fairly long tradition and history but it is not unique. In medieval times people would usualy have their first name and had the father name as surname. This tradition is still aplied in some countries. Of course the big diference between Iceland and the other countries is that in the other countries the sufix for "son of" or "daugther of" disapeared and the mothers name started to enter in the surname list together with the father name. And also, some countries in Europe dont allow you to use any name you want, much like in Iceland. Portugal is one of those examples, altough it is aceptive to foreign names if they can be pronounced in portuguese or if they dont hinder our spelling of it if writen in the foreign language
I mean, when you're an electrician and your name is Thor, I see absolutely no problem.
I've always been intrigued by the naming customs in Iceland! You should look into Spanish-language naming customs! There's a reason for the trope that people from Spanish-speaking countries have almost comically long names, especially when compared to people from Anglophone countries. In the Spanish-speaking world (with the exception of Argentina, I've heard), most people have two surnames (apellidos): their father's first surname, and their mother's first surname, usually in that order. Many people also have compound first names, meaning, a first name (nombre) composed of two, or even more, names. This is particularly common if the _first_ first name is super common (Juan, María, José, Ana, etc.) and they need a more unique _second_ first name to distinguish them (like Juan Eliseo, María Carlota, José Luis, Ana Ofelia, etc.).
-- E.g. Juan Elías Martínez Contreras
-- E.g. María Carlota Fernández Arce
-- E.g. José Luis Vicente Azcárrate Salazar
-- E.g. Ana Ofelia Gutiérrez y Samaniego
Many girls' names are Marian titles, meaning they're some permutation of "María de ___," such as María de las Mercedes or María de los Ángeles, which can makes their official names even longer. Most tend to just go by the non-"María de" part of their name where their official name is not necessary, hence "Mercedes" or "Ángeles." Also, women in heterosexual marriages don't usually take their husbands' surnames after they get married unless they specifically request it. Many Spanish-speaking countries have same-sex marriage (Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, many states in Mexico, Colombia, etc.), and while I don't know what the trends are for gay couples, I assume the pattern is roughly the same: they keep their original surnames. When it comes to adoption, however, I am unsure of how gay couples in these countries tend to name their adopted children.
Small addition.
Some are given their mother's name instead, Kristínardóttir Kristínarson. This can happen if the father is foreign with an illegal name but more often it is when the father has never been in the picture. When I was young I perceived kids with their mothers name as problem childs with a difficult home. Learned later on the reasons for being given their mothers name and made some connections between broken domestic environments and behaviour of kids with their mothers name.
Even adults here in Iceland don't understand the grammar sometimes, it's just that weird and dumb
Blessaður Hafþór lol
9:09 An Icelander with some fact checking :) You are missing the declension part of the committee accepting names. If the name can't easily be changed depending on the context then it will not be excepted 11:23 This declension will apply to last names as well. Here for example the name would be Önnujónsson and Önnujónsdóttir.
im icelandic and some of these names are weird to me. like Goðleifur, i have never heard that name but a good replacement would've been guðmundur because guð means God and its a name that many people have in iceland
Eða Guðleifur
I love hearing non-Icelandic people trying to pronounce Icelandic.
Gœethloifir
iceland is a wondrous nation, my friend. good work in preserving icelandic!
Alex, Robert:NAAH
Aleksander Aleksandr Aleksandersson:
HELL YEEE
I really don't like this idea of trying to preserve a language unchanged. Things change, and that's not a bad thing.
Preserving a language can be the greatest thing ever done, so people from 1000 later will still understand you
I heard once that if you want to know what the language of the Vikings would have sounded like, just listen to Icelandic because of how little it has changed.
There are many sound changes that have occurred, but depending on your first language the difference may not be large enough to matter. You can look for reconstructed pronunciation of Old Norse.
That's false. You can sort of get a feel for what it sounded like, but Icelandic is quite different from Old Norse, especially in pronounciation.
Yes.. But actually no
They used to have that last name convention in Sweden, but turned away from it a long time ago. It actually caused issues for my grandfather when he was trying to figure out his ancestry until my uncle finally found documents that connected the new last name to the old last name from the old naming convention.
Abandoning the -daughter/son suffix surname naming convention is simply the rational thing to do when the size of the interactive population grows beyond that of a small village.
ISL having an authoritarian naming regime is quite clownish, TBH.
If a married couple from a foreign country move to iceland, would they have to change their first and last names? Also would they be allowed to name their children whatever they want?
No
Well the birtish kid did, but their mother is Icelandic, so idk for foreigners
My parents are living in Iceland, and they did not have to change their name, and the kid who was born in Iceland did not have any ruls over what name it was given.
Foreigners are exempt from the naming rules.
Foreigners used to be forced to change names, but this has been abandoned. Also, a large portion of the population uses nicknames that is not registered, but due to the language, the nicknames also adhere to Icelandic grammar.
People are not forced to change their names. There was a legal requirement at the time which mandated that each foreigner who gained Icelandic citizenship had have at least one part of their name Icelandic, but as far as I know it's not like this anymore. Foreigners are not exempted from the Icelandic naming laws so if they name their child in Iceland, its name must conform with the law. I must note that children of people with surnames and people who marry people with surnames can choose to use them as they would elsewhere.
well it was lied about all football players , Eiður Guðjohnsen is sen :P
also we even have strict name rules for horses as there is horse naming cammittee :D
6:36 Do you dream about Harambe?
Do you not?
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing. God bless
so Icelander here (look at my name) with a small interest in grammar. so the letters c,q,w,z just don't exist in Icelandic so you can't use them for Icelandic names. furthermore all names must be able to be bent in four ways: nominative, accusative, dative, and possessive. It's way more than just removing some letters
for example my name comes in the forms: Dagur, Dag, Degi, Dags
My name is also Dagur
We used to have "Z" in the Icelandic languageg but it was done away with by an idiotic minister of government who was probably lousy at spelling. And the written Icelandic is much poorer without it.
@@sirrykr1679 meh, it was replaced with "s" in all cases without issues. Simplifies spelling without introducing confusion. We probably should rid ourselves of the "ð" as well. "Þ" makes the same sound so we could probably do a simple find and replace for it IMHO
@ I totally disagree with you. We should protect our spoken and written language. Easier is not always better and no-one is going to protect our language if we do not do it ourselves.
@@sirrykr1679 we should protect Icelandic. But languages (especially written) evolve. I am afraid that being a prescriptivist and fighting the changes happening in the language too hard will cause the younger generations to abandon Icelandic in favour of a more flexible language. My philosophy in preserving the language is to try to make sure that Icelandic continues to evolve.
I will admit I was being hyperbolic with the "ð" and "þ" thing but I see no reason to reintroduce the "z" into Icelandic.
Hungarian naming laws are similar: Hungarian names given to ethnic Hungarians must not cause harm to them, they have to obey Hungarian orthographic rules, and names belonging to one sex can only be given to children of that sex. So Jennifer could only be approved as Dzsenifer and be given to girls only.
There is a Hungarian naming committee, too, which approves any newly created names and puts them into the list of available names. For example, Dakota was rejected because it is a unisex name in America(!).
Ethnic minorities, foreign and/or multiple citizens or Hungarian citizens born to at least one foreign parent are exempt from most of these rules. If you declare yourself as ethnic German, for example, each minority group has its own list, and Jennifer is probably present on the German list, for example.
Another thing to mention:
the basic elements of patronymic/matronymic names have to be declined, the genitive shall be used in forms like Sigurđur --> Sigurdsson/Sigurdsdóttir, Jón --> Jónsson/Jónsdóttir, or Magda --> Mögduson/Mögdudóttir, Björk --> Bjarkarson/Bjarkardóttir, Anna --> Önnuson/Önnudóttir.
Alan would be Alansdóttir, because -s is the genitive case ending.
Annajónson is grammatically incorrect, that would probably never be accepted. Maybe Önnujónsson/Önnujónsdóttir would be acceptable.
Duncan was only rejected because of the letter "c" because its declension would be fairly easy (probably Duncan/Duncan/Duncans/Duncani). Harriet is more problematic, but Harriet/Harriet/Harrietar/Harriet should have the trick done...
Alex was only rejected when parents wanted to name their girl, Alex. My name is Alex and I'm from Iceland so I'm living proof that it's allowed... just for males :)
How about Eliza?
@@elisasunny Elísa and Elísabet exist and Elizabeth was accepted. The committee has yet to judge a request for "Eliza" and it would be a hard bargain since nobody carries the name and "Z" is not an official letter in the Icelandic alphabet anymore.
Source taken from - island.is/mannanofn
On 9:20 you asked for an explanation on Icelandic grammar. That would take a whole book. But for "Namewords" (Words for names of persons and objects) you basically have to have 8 versions of words, 4 for singular and 4 for plural. Common way to "bend" words are to use the pretext: Here is, about, from, to. So Guðmundur (one of our most common name) can also be: Guðmund, Guðmundi, Guðmundar/Guðmunds in singular and Guðmundar, Guðmunda, Guðmundum, Guðmunda. As you can see you can use the same form twice sometimes and the exact way you should "bend" words can be somewhat open to interpretation but for and non-scholar Icelander, like myself, it can be felt better than explained.
Iceland's Strict & Ancient Name Laws
Huge respect by me keep culture alive
Love from Finland
(I am jealousy)
Living things change, living cultures change. Trying to keep things constant isn't living, adaption is how cultures survive.
I am not against change I understant it's natural and part of life but i like preserve cultural beauty in all country and it's specialty. What if all people speak english and do culturally same things it's practical and easy but to me it would be colorless.
of course I don't think everything changes so radically in an instant but still Cultural beauty is what I would like to preserve
Faroese speaking (We have similar naming traditions as Iceland)*:
You can also cross the name before "-son/-dóttir" across the sexes.
For example: If there are two kids, one boy and one girl, then the boy will be named after the mother, and the girl after the father.
So, if Alan is married to Helen, then the surnames would be: Bob Helensson and Linda Alansdóttir.
Oh, and the "...fun words that are unique to Iceland that relate to names" - we have them, too.
In indef. nominativ they are:
F. sing: Navna // pl: Navnur.
M. sing: Navni // pl: Navnar.
... and so on ...
Let's make that: "... fun words that are unique to the insular scandanavian languages" ;)
Great video!
You said "insular island" which is a tautology. "Insular" means island-like, so by definition all islands are insular.
came to the comments to say just this
Also how can an island be not insular? Lmao
TBF, insular in this context indicates cultural worldview rather than a geographical descriptor. Britain is also an island (well, GB + NIR + micro island dependencies), but the GBR gov. doesn't have these ridiculously reactionary naming laws in place.
In Belgium, technically, the alderman for civil affairs gets to reject names based on somewhat nebulous criteria ... though this is barely, if ever, enforced anymore.
A somewhat famous case was of Belgian national goalkeeper Michel Preud'homme wanting to name his son Guilian, with an n at the end.
Since Guiliam existed in Belgium, but not Guilian, he had to obtain an exert from the civil registry from a small town in Brittany to show that Guilian was an existing name.
12:18
A woman named "Erikson"...
FACT: Indonesia's first woman president was Sukarno's daughter named *Megawati Sukarnoputri.*
Icelandic surnames: Son/Dottir
Indo-Malay surnames: Putra/Putri
One thing I wanna add is that icelandic names are very often related to animals, plants or weather. For example my grandpas' names are falcon and bear, my grandma's name is a type of bird, my causin is named after a flower. People are also named day, sun, night, storm, fire etc.
There’s something delightfully redundant about referring to an island as insular
@@jbird4478 no
@@jbird4478 wait... I see what you did there
I binge-watched Icelandic series on Netflix this year, and it’s so much fun to read the credits and understand what the names mean 🙂
You seem to tend to say “Icelantic” instead of Icelandic.
That's actually a very Icelandic way of speaking
It's probably just the accent that makes the "d" sound like a "t". That happens to me sometimes
I noticed this. I like his videos but his pronunciation of so many words puts me off, even place names in England,.or just ordinary English words. But I guess I've got used to it now
I love how you do those "th" sounds in Icelandic so authentically. How do you those in English words, like "thirteen"?
Fun fact: the Icelandic language is unavailable on iPhones, so you have to learn another language (most of the time it's English) just to use an iPhone.
My keyboard is Icelandic
@@irism4ney I'm not talking about the keyboard, I'm talking about having the entire iOS interface be in Icelandic, that's simply not an option.
@@resolvanlemmy oh yeah, I’ve tried to change my whole phone but it wasn’t possible
@@irism4ney yikes, really tough on you guys, especially if you don't speak English.
Petition to add the Icelandic language to iPhones
@@resolvanlemmy Apple probably thinks it wouldn't be worth it. Lots of effort for very little returns. From a human perspective it's unfair, but from a business perspective it's good sense
The Icelandic naming system is really interesting, they know every single name that has been used for the last thousand years. Recently, a boy was named a name that hadn't been used for nearly around 1000+ years.
As an Icelander I can very much tell you that middle names are very very common in fact it’s kind of weird if you meet someone that doesn’t have a middle name
I have four siblings and we all have just one name. It is rather uncommon now.
How would a child’s name work if one parent is Icelandic and the other parent is of a different nationality?
This reminds me of back in the day when many immigrants moving into English speaking countries used to anglicize their names to make it easier to assimilate better to their new homeland, but as far as I know, there weren't any special committees involved.
Immigrants anglicizing their names wasn't as innocuous as them just wanting to assimilate, it was also because American immigration officers and Americans in general couldn't , most likely wouldn't try to learn to pronounce different sounding names. Case in point, well known famed LA Mark Garagos , he was one of Micheal Jackson's lawyers for the last court case he was in. Most people dont realize that his last name os the shortened version of Gregorian , he's of Armenian desscent. John Stamos ( Uncle Jesse from "Full House" and "Fuller House"), is of Greek heritage, his great grandfather shortened the family name from Stamopolis to Stamos because immigration official couldn't pronounce the family name.
The reason why JS' characters last name was Katsopolis was because he'd asked the show's creator (who was also head writer) , Jeff Franklin if Jesse's last name could be changed from Cochran to Katsopolis ( because I believe it'd been mentioned that Jess and his sister( Danny Tanner's late wife) had some Greek heritage and the rest of history.
I find Spanish last names equally as fascinating
Why tho, they're basically the same as English's :p
Why? Spanish last names are boring
I meant spanish names in south America.
I had a peruvian friend who explained to me (what she called) the spanish naming system, where you have 2 first and 2 last names, and you get one last name from your mom and one from your dad. So you have the same double last name as your siblings, but different from either of your parents.
And the first born son gets the fathers 1st first name as his 2nd first name and the same for first born daughter and mother
@@DukeDukeGo Well, it's not really that different from English's lol, you just get a second last name and that's it.
@@efrainsantiago2811 I think it's fascinating, too. It's stuff we take for granted.
as an Icelandic person
I love watching videos about Iceland and hearing people attempt to say words
I think you might be a sadist
How would a child’s name work if one parent is Icelandic and the other parent is of a different nationality?
@Stay Blessed i don't really understand your question, but I'm half swedish, my name fits pretty well in both sweden and iceland i think? though tbf icelandic and swedish isn't SUPER different, so idk
My favorite naming culture is actually a fictional one. In dnd, elves are given a child name by their parents, and then when they become an adult, they choose a new name as an adult name. I think this is actually a really good system, it allows for people’s names to be personal, and actually representative of themselves rather than who their parents thought they might be. I honestly kind of wish that was common culture.
I don't think it would never be very common because it's just too much work. Like today it's very possible to do so but most people don't do it;
In my country, Lithuania, we also have an interesting tradition of writing family names. The surnames of our citizens are written only in Lithuanian (without qwx, which is very unlikely for local Poles). In our language, the end of the name changes due to grammar (for convenience, we even add Lithuanian suffixes to the names of foreign men), but we also have different suffixes for married women and girls.
Here in Iceland, recently the letter Z was taken out of the alphabet for being not native or something which meant that now we have to spell pizza as pítsa (same pronunciation) or flatbaka (a made up Icelandic word) sooooo yeah
This was 47 years ago whoops*
The letter Z was removed from the Icelandic alphabet in 1973. I wouldn't call something that happened 47 years ago recent.
@@matthiashrafnkelsson2180 sorry I swear I remember this happened like 2 years ago or something lmao
Lol recent is relative. 47 years ago is recent compared to Shakespeare.
@@rowboat8343 yeah but for a language that has existed for basically 1000 years, 47 years is like yesterday
@@dubious_potat4587 yes exactly my point 😃
Honestly, only having people named Magnus Alanson is stridin about is one of the most badass things I’ve ever heard.
Well done sir.