#Björn is a software engineer to me and I'm laughing so hard at his tangentially programmer name

[jamtland]

After seeing your post about Sweden's human name, do you mind explaining what your favorite human names for the other Nordics are and your reasoning?

Especially Norway -- I'm still rather fond of Lukas for familiarity's sake, but would love to have a better alternative! I understand why people don't like Bondevik after a quick search. I've seen people use Thomassen recently and have started using that instead

Sure! I'll also add links to posts made by users from these countries if you need a more reliable source (except Iceland, I haven't seen an Icelandic Hetalian on Tumblr yet).

Norway

If you're looking for infomation about anything relating to Norway, not limited to names but also history, traditions and modern culture, YOU NEED TO TALK TO OUR RESIDENT NORWEGIAN @ifindus. They have done university-level research in Norwegian history and I am constantly learning new things about Norway from their posts, which says a lot as someone who has half his family from Norway. It's thanks to Findus that I learned about a very common misconception about Norwegian names that I will explain below!

Unlike people from English-speaking countries, Danes, Swedes, and Finns, Norwegians do not use "middle names" in the sense of "alternative first names that are mostly ignored except on official documentation". It's very common for creators to give Norway a name like "Lukas Øyvind Haugland" with the idea that he goes by Lukas in daily life, and Øyvind is a mostly unused middle name. But that's not how it works in Norway! Instead, both Lukas and Øyvind will be recognized as his first names of equal priority, and he will be referred to using the double name Lukas Øyvind. Findus can explain this better than I can, but you cannot simply smash two names together to form a Norwegian double name, as many name combinations, such as Lukas Øyvind, sound ridiculous. Paraphrasing Findus' words, there are no definite rules that make certain double names realistic or silly, it's mostly a feeling that the name "sounds good". There are however common patterns, such as the first half having less than or equal syllables to the second, both names having the same "vibe", and not having too many consecutive consonants.

Thanks to Findus' advice, I recently changed my name for Norway to drop the "middle names", cutting it down to Sigurd Fjellanger. Sigurd, an Old Norse name meaning "victorious guardian", is the most popular first name among Norwegian creators because of its uniqueness to Norway and use in all time periods. Fjellanger is my personal choice, as I want a nature name for Norway that refers to his home region. Nature names in Norway often indicate where a person's ancestors were from as they were historically chosen from names of towns and farmland. Fjellanger means "mountain fjord" and is associated with coastal western Norway, which is where my Sigurd's hometown is. Findus uses the last name Nordvik which means "northern bay" and is not associated with a specific region (their Norway moves around the country and does not have a fixed hometown). Patronymics (names ending in -sen) don't have strong regional associations and Thomassen is a common, neutral-sounding name.

It seems like I have unintentionally written a long post again. Other characters under the cut.

Sweden

The other Nordic countries use "middle names", but like in real life, these extra names will never be seen outside of these name posts. My full name for Sweden is Björn Axel Johan Stjernqvist because he's my country and I can make fun of him. Björn is a very Swedish Old Norse name meaning "bear" while Stjernqvist, meaning "star branch", is a lame reference to his Hetalia name that also contains the word "star". 95jezzica is from Sweden and recommends the classic Svensson as his last name, but I personally avoid giving very common names to characters in case I know or will meet someone with that name. I also prefer to choose nature names unless there is a meaningful (parental) connection to the name in the patronymic. Double names are also used in Sweden, but they are much rarer and are associated with the older generation. Swedish double names are connected with a dash rather than a space, like Lars-Erik.

Denmark

My beloved Denmark has the name Søren Mathias Holgersen. Mathias is not an Old Norse name. It originates from Latin and means "gift from God", which is what he is to me. Holgersen is a reference to the legendary Danish hero Holger Danske. Some creators think that the name Mathias is inaccurate for Denmark in all periods, but that's only true for the pre-Christianization era. There are 22,7k people currently named Mathias in Denmark in 2023 (this is not including the alternate spellings). In fact, none of the popular alternative names for Denmark that begin with M, Mikkel and Magnus, are of Old Norse origin either. But that's alright, because Denmark was the most strongly influenced by continental Europe culturally and has the weakest Norse influence out of the Scandinavians. This post by someone-you-do-not-know from Denmark discusses what's wrong with the Hetalia name suggestions for Denmark and offers additional suggestions. The OP has a personal reason for disliking the name Mathias, but the name is otherwise alright to use.

Finland

I unfortunately don't speak Finnish and don't know much about Finnish naming traditions, so I use a name that has been personally recommended by Finns and is quite close to the Hetalia name: Timo Kalevi Väisänen. The middle name Kalevi was randomly mentioned by ask-finny from Finland and I'm not particularly attached to it either, so I'm open to changing it. Nordickies is also from Finland and has made two very helpful posts about analyzing Finland's Hetalia name and resources for researching Finnish names.

Iceland

Iceland has a very strict naming law which could make choosing his name easier or more difficult depending on how you look at it. The first name Emil is permitted on Iceland, but it's a modern trend name that doesn't have an Icelandic history, its use began after the release of Astrid Lindgren's book Emil i Lönneberga. Steilsson is illegal as it would mean that Iceland's father was named Steil, which is not a permitted name (nor did it ever exist in the Nordic countries). Like Finland, I kept his Hetalia initials and gave him the name Eiríkur Stefánsson.

#ask #hetalia #hws denmark #hws sweden #hws norway #hws finland #hws iceland #aph denmark #aph sweden #aph norway #aph finland #aph iceland #character development #the more you know #long post #I just noticed the coincidence of Stjernqvist because names like these were created by smashing two often unrelated words together #but in the modern day Star and Branch are related terms #in the context of Star Branch Clone Fork Pull Request that is #Björn is a software engineer to me and I'm laughing so hard at his tangentially programmer name