Swedish Feminine Given Names from SMP

by Aryanhwy merch Catmael (Sara L. Friedemann)

© 2001-2003 Sara L. Friedemann
© renewed 2005 Sara L. Uckelman

Introduction

The following list of over 900 late-period Swedish feminine given names has been extracted from Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: 1967-). [1] I have taken names that are clearly marked as feminine, usually by the presence of a patronymic byname indicating that a person is the daughter of someone else, e.g., Birgitta Petherssdother, 1515.

Organizational notes

The names are grouped first according to date, and then by alphabetical order. Clicking on a name will bring you to a page with all the variant forms of that name, arranged, again, by date. Following each name will be the dates that it was found, and in parenthesis the headword it was found under, e.g.
Gertrudh1400 (Gerhard), 1415 (Bonde), 1507 (Anund)

This entry can be read as the spelling Gertrudh is dated to 1400 under the header name Gerhard, to 1415 under the header Bonde, and to 1507 under the header Anund.

Most of the names are taken from Swedish-language documents; however, a few, especially names found before the 14th century, are found recorded in Latin. Since these forms may not accurately represent the vernacular spellings in use at the time, I have marked them as Latin by putting (L) after the date that the name is found. A few names are also only represented by their use in a metronym, e.g.Bertikasson 1506 being an example of the feminine name Bertika. Such forms, and any other form that are clearly in the genitive case, are marked with a (g) after the date. Two names were explicitly noted as being of Norwegian women. These are both marked with (N).

Surnames

One of the most common types of surname for a late-period century Swedish woman is a patronymic byname, a byname that indicates who her father is. Feminine patronymic bynames are formed by adding -dotter or -dotther to the genitive (possessive) form of the bearer's father's name, e.g., Birgitta Petherssdotther 1515 or Birgitta Laurinssa dotter ca. 1520.

Additionally, a woman could be known as her husband's wife, by having her husband's name in the genitive case follow her given name, e.g., Birgitta Per Michelssons 1503, "Per Michaelsson's Birgitta," and Birgitta Stens 1508, "Sten's Birgitta." This often, though not exclusively, indicated that the woman was a widow.

Another type of byname, less common but still appropriate, is a locative byname, which describes where a person is from. Locatives are formed most often by using the preposition i or j, pronounced \ee\ and meaning "in," before the place the person is from. This could be either the name of a town or village, or a generic topographical element: e.g., we find Birgitta i Barckarlaby "Birgitta in Barckarlaby" 1513 and Elin i hørnit "Elin in the corner" in 1508.

The least common type of byname is descriptive bynames (nicknames describing personal characteristics of the bearer). Examples include:
Danske1505'Danish'
Rysse, Ryssza1508, 1512'Russian'
Skarp1509'sharp or clever'
legekone1511'leechwoman'
stora1512'big'
Røde1505'red'

Adjectival bynames such as stora and Rysse can either precede or follow the given name.

Name lists

1100-11991400-1449
1200-12991450-1499
1300-13491500-1600
1350-1399index

Notes, References, & Acknowledgments

Thanks to Catriona inghean Uí Bhraonáin for proofreading and link-checking. Any errors still existing in this article are mine and mine alone.

[1] --, Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn, Vol. 1- (Uppsala: 1967-. bd. 1, h. 3: isbn: 91-7192-123-8; bd. 1, h. 4: isbn: 91-7192-223-7; bd. 1, h. 5: isbn: 91-7402-044-7; bd. 2, h. 6: isbn: 91-7402-104-4; bd. 2, h. 7: isbn: 91-7402-136-2, h. 8: isbn: 91-7402-115-x; bd. 2, h. 9: isbn: 91-88096-00-9; bd. 2, h. 10: isbn: 91-88096-01-7; Bloms Boktryckeri AB: Lund 1983 bd. 2