Icelandic name

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Icelandic names are names used by people from Iceland. Icelandic surnames are different from most other naming systems in the modern Western world in that they are patronymic or occasionally matronymic: they indicate the father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage. Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Unlike these countries, Icelanders have continued to use their traditional name system, which was formerly used in most of Northern Europe.^[a] The Icelandic system is thus not based on family names (although some people do have family names and might use both systems). Generally, a person's last name indicates the first name of their father (patronymic) or in some cases mother (matronymic) in the genitive, followed by -son ("son") or -dóttir ("daughter").

Some family names exist in Iceland, most commonly adaptations from last names Icelanders adopted when living abroad, usually in Denmark. Notable Icelanders with inherited family names include former prime minister Geir Haarde, football star Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen, entrepreneur Magnús Scheving, film director Baltasar Kormákur Samper, and actress Anita Briem. Before 1925, it was legal to adopt new family names; one Icelander to do so was the Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness, while another author, Einar Hjörleifsson, and his brothers chose the family name "Kvaran". Since 1925, it has been illegal for Icelanders to adopt a family name unless they have a right to do so through inheritance.^[4]

First names not previously used in Iceland must be approved by the Icelandic Naming Committee.^[5] The criterion for acceptance is whether a name can easily be incorporated into the Icelandic language. With some exceptions, it must contain only letters found in the Icelandic alphabet (including þ and ð), and it must be possible to decline the name according to the language's grammatical case system, which in practice means that a genitive form can be constructed in accordance with Icelandic rules. Names considered to be gender-nonconforming were historically not allowed, but in 2013, a 15-year-old girl named Blær (a masculine noun in Icelandic) was allowed to keep her name in a court decision that overruled an initial rejection by the naming committee.^[6] Her mother, Björk Eiðsdóttir, did not realize at the time that "Blær" was considered masculine; she had read Halldór Laxness's novel The Fish Can Sing, which has a female character named Blær, meaning "light breeze", and decided that if she had a daughter, she would name her Blær.^[7]

In 2019, the laws governing names were changed. First names are no longer restricted by gender. Moreover, Icelanders who are officially registered as nonbinary are permitted to use the patro/matronymic suffix -bur ("child of") instead of -son or -dóttir.^[8]

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