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Od
Nordic Names
By
1526 the Danish-Norwegian nobility had been required by the Danish
king to have a fixed and inheritable surname. In 1828, the Danish
government decreed that all persons should have a surname which was
inherited from the preceding generation. In Norway, the tradition
changed slowly, starting in the towns around 1700. In 1922 a law forced
citizens to have an inheritable surname and forbade patronymics. A
similar law was introduced in Sweden in 1901.
With
the patronymic system a son used his father's given name as a name
stem and added to the stem: sen, son or son with a slash through the
letter o. As an example Odd's son would have received the patronymic
Oddsen, Odson, or Odssen. In Sweden, Odson or Odsson was used. In
Denmark only, Odsen was considered natural. When a boy in Norway got
the name Odsen (son of Od), his sisters would be called Odsdatter
(daughter of Od) or Odsdotter, shortened to Odsdtr. In Denmark the
name would be Odsdatter, in Sweden it would be Odsdotter.
At
some time during the previous century, people decided to change their
patronymic names into proper surnames. From that point on, people
called Odsen after their father Od, would in the following generations
be called Odsen, even when their father's first name was not Od. Since
Odd was a very common name, not all people named Odsen were related.
This means that knowing your Scandinavian ancestor's full patronymic
name is generally not enough information. Norwegian surnames that
are not of patronymic style (sen or dtr names) are generally derived
from farm names and estates.
Adapted
from Family Chronicle May/June 1997 page 12.
Hod
Teutonic Roots
The Anglo-Saxon,
the Norman and the Norse derivations all share an ultimate common root.
Hodgson = 'son
of Roger' = "son of fame spear' (from the Norman French), or
Hodgson = 'son
of Hrodgar' = 'son of fame spear' (from the Old German or Anglo-Saxon),
or
Hodgson = 'son
of Oddr' = 'son of arrowhead' (from the Old Norse), or
Hodgson = 'son
of Oddgeir' = 'son of leader spear' (from the Old Norse).
The common linguistic
root reaches back to the old Teutonic culture of Northern Europe. What
remains perplexing is the 'fame spear' or 'leader spear' element in
the name. The Teutonic words for 'fame' or 'leader' account for the
'-ger' in Roger, the '-gar' in Hrodgar and the '-geir' in Oddgeir. Whatever
theory of the origins of the name is accepted, the '-ger', '-gar' or
'-geir' has to be explained. What is the meaning of 'fame spear' or
'leader spear'? There is a plausible answer in Rudolf Simek's Dictionary
of Northern Mythology (D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 1993). Under the
entry for Odin -- the father of the gods in Norse mythology -- we find
the following, "According to the Ynglinga saga 4, it was Odin
who first brought war into the world, and battles are begun by a spear
being thrown into the hostile army to dedicate it to Odin" (page 242).
One of Odin's attributes was his spear, and he is often depicted riding
a horse and holding a spear aloft.
It can thus be
presumed that one member of a Norse or Teutonic army was charged with
the responsibility and privilege of starting the battle by lunging a
spear into the enemy. This would be the 'fame spear' or 'leader spear'.
It would be the first thrust of battle: a sharp projectile leading to
the first drawing of blood, a sacred act according to Teutonic beliefs.
The person given this responsibility would thus be named Oddgeir or
Hrodgar, later corrupted by the Normans to Roger. It is also perhaps
no accident that the Norse word for 'point of spear' or 'arrowhead'
is Odd, and this is similar to the name of the god Odin. The dedication
of the first spear to Odin could have caused the point of the sacred
weapon to be described as Odd.
The use of the
martlet birds in the Hodgson coat of arms may be a corruption of the
Viking symbol of a raven, used by them to depict the god Odin, war and
death. Note that Odin had two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, representing
thought and memory respectively. Odin's association with battle was
as much a celebration of his alleged powers of cunning and strategy,
rather than purely with the distasteful aspects of war. The Anglo-Saxon
name for Odin is Woden, whose name is preserved in Wednesday -- 'Woden's
day'.
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