Your Name In Iceland
This may be trivial but there are no family names in Iceland. You are almost 100% sure to be somebodies son or dottir. If my parents were in Iceland and I was born there, I would be legally known as John Paulsson or John Gladisson and my children were I to have any would be Johnssons or Johnsdottirs.
Iceland is a small country and there are currently laws about what you can name your children. There are 1712 approved names for males and 1853 approved given names for females. There is a governmental agency that can approve additional names for the approved list.
The times they are changing. There is a proposal to allow family names and scrap the list of approved male/female names. Currently there are no boys named "Sue" because it could be a nuisance for the child.
The French who guard the French language are strict about what is proper French. Icelandic language freaks worry that this is the beginning of the end of the Icelandic as practiced by the original vikings that wrote the sagas. They may be correct but the no changes ideal seems to fly in opposition to the current public sentiment and the fact that folks are immigrating to Iceland as well as immigrating from Iceland.
Iceland is a small country and there are currently laws about what you can name your children. There are 1712 approved names for males and 1853 approved given names for females. There is a governmental agency that can approve additional names for the approved list.
The times they are changing. There is a proposal to allow family names and scrap the list of approved male/female names. Currently there are no boys named "Sue" because it could be a nuisance for the child.
The French who guard the French language are strict about what is proper French. Icelandic language freaks worry that this is the beginning of the end of the Icelandic as practiced by the original vikings that wrote the sagas. They may be correct but the no changes ideal seems to fly in opposition to the current public sentiment and the fact that folks are immigrating to Iceland as well as immigrating from Iceland.
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