User:SvareJM/Sandbox/Sweden Names

Introduction
Considerable confusion exists among many people with Swedish ancestry regarding how names are used in Sweden and how they should be recorded. This document attempts to give background into the historical practices, legislation, and recommended best practices for recording Norwegian personal and place names.

Best Practices For Recording Names

 * Surnames which are abbreviated in the records should be recorded fully spelled out

Surnames
It is clear from the oldest known records that names have been used to identify individuals throughout history. Surnames, as they are understood by many English-speaking cultures today, first began to be used before the end of the first millennium, C.E. Surnames were first introduced in Europe by the Normans, who were French-speaking descendants of Viking settlers. This may indicate that people living in Scandinavia were among the earliest adopters of some type of surname.

Abbreviations
When recording surnames, it is important to remember that patronymics were frequently abbreviated in the records. The abbreviations dr., dtr., d., are all substitutes for dotter. Likewise, male patronymics are frequently shortened to s. In a parish where most of the population has a surname ending with dotter or son, recording the name in full would be needlessly redundant.