Börje

Börje is an old Swedish male name. It is a cognate of Birger; Börje is the form that has developed naturally according to the sound change laws of Swedish, whilst Birger is a literary form that has been common since the nineteenth century, when archaic forms of names became fashionable.

Etymology
The etymology of Börje is uncertain. Probably it is a short form of names beginning with Berg‐. Less likely it means ”helper”, from the verb bärga. It has also been suggested that it is derived from the name element &#x2011;ger (spear).

Sound changes
Börje developed from Old Swedish Birghir which was pronounced with a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]: [birɣir]. The voiced velar fricative was spelled ⟨gh⟩ i Old Swedish and changed to /j/ after /r/ in modern Svenska.

Börje is an ija&#x2011;stem. Ija&#x2011;stems ended in &#x2011;ir i Old Swedish, which regularly developed into a word final &#x2011;e in modern Swedish. This explains why Börje has accent 2 today: since the synkope at the transition from Proto-Norse to Norse the name has been disyllabic, which leads to a word being pronounced with the grave accent in modern Swedish. Hence, the vowel in the second syllable of old Swedish Birghir or Birgher was no svarabhakti vowel like the &#x2011;e&#x2011; in modern Swedish words such as the a&#x2011;stem dager, which at one stage was monosyllabic (dagr) and therefore has accent 1.

The first vowel &#x2011;i&#x2011; of Birghir between a b and an r changed into an &#x2011;y&#x2011; and then into an &#x2011;ö&#x2011;. The vowel was &#x2011;i&#x2011; labialised by the influence of the initial /b/.

The form Birger
The form Birger has been revived from the old language within the last 200 years. This "revived" form has accent 1, like an a&#x2011;stem with a nominative suffix consisting of the svarabhakti‐vowel &#x2011;e&#x2011; plus &#x2011;r. Swedish names revived during romanticism commonly take a historically unjustified pronunciation.

Popularity
Börje was very common as a given name in 1930–49. Today it is almost never given as a first name that is used to address the person. In 2017 approximately 7 500 persons had the name as their first name or name of address.

Name day in Sweden: 9 June).

People with the given name Börje

 * Börje Ahlstedt (born 1939), Swedish actor
 * Börje Ekedahl (1928–2006), Swedish bobsledder
 * Börje Ekholm (born 1963), Swedish business executive, CEO of Ericsson
 * Börje Fredriksson (1937–1968), Swedish jazz tenor saxophonist
 * Börje Haraldsson (born 1957), Swedish physician and researcher
 * Börje Hörnlund (born 1935), Swedish politician
 * Börje Jansson (born 1952), Swedish motorcycle road racer
 * Börje Leander (1918–2003), Swedish footballer
 * Börje Salming (1951–2022), Swedish ice hockey player
 * Börje Vestlund (1960–2017), Swedish social democratic politician
 * Börje-Bengt Hedblom, Swedish bobsledder
 * Lars-Börje Eriksson (born 1966), Swedish Alpine skier
 * Quorthon (Thomas Börje Forsberg) (1966–2004), Swedish songwriter and musician