From: utzoo!decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!npoiv!npois!cbosgd!cbosg!rlp
Newsgroups: net.singles
Title: Re:Whats in a name
Article-I.D.: cbosg.2693
Posted: Wed Nov 17 08:47:38 1982
Received: Tue Nov 23 02:28:53 1982

The naming conventions used in this country and Western
Europe (ie wife and kids adopt husbands last name) are
NOT universal.  In Iceland, the standard convention is
both parents retain their last names, and the kids last
names are based on the parents first names + a suffix.
The suffix is either - son or daughter (of course it
is in the Iclandic language), depending upon the child's
sex.  Sons get their father's first name and daughter's
use their mother's as the prefix.  Thus if say Eric and
Mary have kids, their sons would have a last name of
"Eric-son" and their daughters would have a last name of
"Mary-daughter".  The only disadvantage I can see with this
arrangement is that it would greatly reduce the pool of
potential names (since certain first names are more
popular than others).  Iceland is a relatively small country
so this might not be a problem for THEM ... ("Operator I'd
like to speak to Jim John-son in New York City ...")

			Not afraid to sign my conventional name,
			Bob Platt