Talk:Ælfwine

Swedish Alwin
Alvin/Alwin is a long-standing English surname. Alvin was revived as a given name in the US in the 19th century.

Now, in Sweden, there are lots of people called Alvin, but most of them seem to be children. The given name rose past rank 100 in 2002, and peaked at rank 27 in 2009. So clearly, the Alvins in Sweden are a recent fashion. The question is, is it a historical Swedish name, or is it just an import of the American name? I would bet on the latter, if it was not for the Nordiskt runnamnslexikon claiming that Alwin is an Old Swedish form of Old Norse Alfvin. Why Old Swedish has the grapheme w in the first place, I am not sure, but that's what they claim. However, I have not been able to find any Swedish people called Alvin (or Alwin) who were alive in the medieval or early modern period, or even born before 2002.

Also, there are 43 people with the surname Alfvin in Sweden? How is this even possible if the Old Swedish form was Alwin? Are these all Neo-Vikings which went to the lengths of a legal name change? Or perhaps the descendants of one eccentric 19th-century Romanticist who had his name changed? --dab (𒁳) 11:16, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Also, Alfvén. It turns out that alfven is an archaic spelling of what is now spelled älven, meaning "stream, river". No idea if this is related, or if Alfvén is from some toponym? --dab (𒁳) 11:56, 28 December 2011 (UTC)