- Most Icelanders do not have a family name (such as Johnson, Smith, etc). So children have a given name and then father’s-name-son or father’s-name-daughter. Thus:
- Jon has a son named Thor Jonsson and a daughter named Hafdis Jonsdottir.
- Thor Jonsson has a son named Bjarni Thorsson and a daughter named Frida Thorsdottir.
- And so forth.
- Icelandic women don’t take the husband’s name when they marry, chiefly because the husband doesn’t have a family name to take.
- Because they don’t have surnames, Icelanders are listed in the telephone directory alphabetically by first name. Read More…
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