User:Narking/Sandbox/Swedish surnames

The most common names in Sweden are originally patronymic, which means that the son of e.g. Karl received the surname Karlsson (Karl's son). The daughter received the name Karlsdotter (Karl's daughter). Since the 19th century these names are inherited indifferent of the previous tradition and carried as family names. Even though these "son-names" are the most common names in Sweden, a majority of the Swedes have other family names consisting of two items from nature, for example Lindberg (linden/lime mountain), Bergkvist (mountain twig), Alström/Ahlström (alder stream). Other names like Sjöman (Seaman) and Nyman (Newman) contain professions and adjectives. Many families also have military-oriented names as Skarpsvärd (sharp sword) Sköld (shield) and Stolt (proud). Those names were originally appointed to soldiers from 16th century and onwards based on either character, merit or inheritance (a professional soldier had the right to change his name to that of his predecessor). Due to the greater diversity of these names each specific name is less common than most "son-names". Persons with ancestors of noble origin in Sweden often have surnames referring to their coat of arms and sometimes the names are also of non-Swedish origin. The top 10 surnames cover about 20% of the population.

Patronymic surnames
Johansson, Svensson, Karlsson

Regional differences due to popular first names.

Surnames deriven from nature
Bergström, Lindberg, Dalberg

Surnames deriven from placenames
Bjurman, Norstedt, Dahlin

Surnames deriven from military names
Sköld, Rask, Warg

Surnames deriven from professions
Very rary

Noble surnames
Natt och Dag, Hamilton,

Walloonian surnames
Douhan, Dandenelle

Top 30 surnames as of 2007-12-31 Note that several surnames are just variants of the same names such as Gustafsson/Gustavsson, Karlsson/Carlsson, Pettersson/Petersson and that Olsson is just a contraction of Olofsson.

Swedish surnames in Finland