Most of us are familiar with the way in which traditional names in Iceland and Norway are formed from a given name followed by what is known as a patronymic. This patronymic consists of the father’s name (occasionally the mother’s) and the ending ‘sson/sen’ or ‘dottir/datter’ for son or daughter respectively.
However, if you have researched Norwegian family history then you might come across people who have an extra name at the end that doesn’t follow this pattern.
It turns out that this is often the name of a farm where the person worked or a community associated with a farm.
What’s more, if the person moved between farms then their last name changed accordingly.
Eventually the traditional naming convention started to die out, particularly in the cities. Many people started to adopt their current farm name as their permanent surname. Others decided to keep the patronymic from then on and not change it for following generations.
Norway has a source of records known as bygdebøker (farm books). These provide detailed information about each farm and can be useful when trying to trace ancestors based on their farm names.
For more information see: