Patronymer som fornavne: En historisk navnebrug i konflikt med normer i dansk navneskik

In 1743, government official E.J. Jessen collected data for a large geographical work about Denmark and Norway, and a questionnaire for the description of local cultural and natural conditions were sent out. For Denmark, the questionnaire contained 40 questions, one of which concerned unusual personal names. The names reported are very varied and show that several names that are now very rare or extinct, have been used regionally and locally in the 1700s. A few of the reported names seem to be patronymics that have come into use as first names, for example, Melsen, Gudsen, and Aastredsen. Patronymics was the most widespread type of bynames in the Danish population in the 18th century;
at that time, fixed family names were only common in the cities in Denmark. Therefore, the use of patronyms as first names is a conspicuous phenomenon for that time and none of these names have survived as first names until the present.

The purpose of the article is to prove that original patronymics can actually appear as first names in Denmark, so that awareness is created that this type of names exists, and one does not dismiss patronymic first names as an error if one encounters them in the sources. In the article, patronymics used as first names as they are reported in the Jessen Relations will be compared to name information from across Denmark in various census and church books. The names’ origin, their regional distribution, and their extinction as first names in the following time are in focus.