Talk:Per Hasselberg

Names
Names are quite confusing. I was hoping to make an infobox. Can anybody clarify why he has two names, and his previous last name did not match his father's? Givemedonuts (talk) 05:00, 18 November 2020 (UTC)
 * Regarding the given name, Per is a contraction/nickname for Petter, so he simply dropped the first part of the double name Karl Petter and then used a less formal version (like, say, a "Charles Peter" becoming "Pete"). Regarding the last name, Per Hasselberg's father's surname (Andersson 'son of Anders') is a patronymic surname, as is his own original surname (Åkesson 'son of Åke'). Hasselberg later adopted the name of his birthplace (Hasselstad > Hasselberg) as an oeconymic-style surname, which was a widespread practice in Scandinavia in the 19th and early 20th century as patronymic conventions were abandoned. Doremo (talk) 05:44, 18 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the beautiful explanations. Even today it is fairly easy in Sweden to have one's family name changed. --Saidmann (talk) 18:32, 18 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Thank you. The only thing missing is why he used -berg instead of -stad. My guess is that -stad sounded more plebian, and that -berg had an air of German-sounding nobility to the 19th-century Swedish ear that the sculptor probably aspired to. Doremo (talk) 18:39, 18 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Perhaps -stad is not plebian, but it seems to be extremely rare in Sweden. I never came across such a name, whereas -berg is very common. The reason is that things of nature like -kvist, -löv, -blom, -berg, -dal where popular when people tried to get away a bit from the -son tradition. As opposed to Germany, man-made things did not enter family names at all in Sweden. Perhaps the Swedes were more romantic. Then, as to "Hasselstad", Hasselberg would have ridiculed himself, because stad means town and city and his birthplace Hasselstad was a very small village. Today less than 100 people. --Saidmann (talk) 19:20, 18 November 2020 (UTC)


 * Thanks, that sounds reasonable. I was thinking of some immigrant -stad farmers (of Norwegian descent) that I know and only guessing based on that; I'm not very familiar with the Swedish situation. Doremo (talk) 19:59, 18 November 2020 (UTC)