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- From: achristo@pons.uio.no (Alf Christophersen)
- Newsgroups: soc.roots
- Subject: Re: German Surnames
- Message-ID: <930026.231834.achristo@nutri1>
- Date: 26 Jan 93 22:18:34 GMT
- Sender: news@ulrik.uio.no (Mr News)
- Organization: University of Oslo
- Lines: 24
- Nntp-Posting-Host: nutri1.uio.no
-
-
- >
- >I do not know if this applies to German surnames or not, but
- >in Sweden men were given names when they were drafted into the
- >King's military service. In that case, the source of the name
- >would be unrelated to geography or possibly logic.
- >
- >Ron
- >
- I'm not quite sure, but if my memory is correct, you choose a
- surname which was often constructed in latin from the farm you
- came from. This example is for Denmark-Norway who had many german
- officers in the days before 1814.
-
- Famous example is Rasmus Berg who became Erasmus Montanus.
-
- The tradition also exists amongst the academians (Rasmus Berg got
- the surname when he was being a student, not when he was drafted
- into the military.) I think in military you also used names
- constructed in other languages than latin, often german, from
- their profession, a blacksmith got the familyname Smith etc.
- I think there was a difference in tradition btw. Sweden and
- Norway/Denmark since you was given a new surname in Sweden (other
- constructed it), but you took a new surname in Norway-Sweden (you
- constructed it).
-