User:Narking/Sandbox/Swedish surnames

The most common names in Sweden are originally patronymic, which means that the son of e.g. Karl received the surname Karlsson (Karl's son). The daughter received the name Karlsdotter (Karl's daughter). Since the 19th century these names are inherited indifferent of the previous tradition and carried as family names. Even though these "son-names" are the most common names in Sweden, a majority of the Swedes have other family names consisting of two items from nature, for example Lindberg (linden/lime mountain), Bergkvist (mountain twig), Alström/Ahlström (alder stream). Other names like Sjöman (Seaman) and Nyman (Newman) contain professions and adjectives. Many families also have military-oriented names as Skarpsvärd (sharp sword) Sköld (shield) and Stolt (proud). Those names were originally appointed to soldiers from 16th century and onwards based on either character, merit or inheritance (a professional soldier had the right to change his name to that of his predecessor). Due to the greater diversity of these names each specific name is less common than most "son-names". Persons with ancestors of noble origin in Sweden often have surnames referring to their coat of arms and sometimes the names are also of non-Swedish origin. The top 10 surnames cover about 20% of the population.

Patronymic surnames

Johansson, Svensson, Karlsson

Regional differences due to popular first names.

Surnames deriven from nature

Bergström, Lindberg, Dalberg

Surnames deriven from placenames

Bjurman, Norstedt, Dahlin

Surnames deriven from military names

Sköld, Rask, Warg

Surnames deriven from professions

Very rary

Noble surnames

Natt och Dag, Hamilton,

Walloonian surnames

Douhan, Dandenelle

Top 30 surnames as of 2007-12-31

	Surname	Number of people	Etymology
1	Johansson	268,887	Son of Johan.
2	Andersson	266,971	Son of Anders.
3	Karlsson	204,801	Son of Karl.
4	Nilsson	180,993	Son of Nils.
5	Eriksson	144,466	Son of Erik.
6	Larsson	130,760	Son of Lars.
7	Olsson	115,425	Son of Olof.
8	Persson	113,043	Son of Per.
9	Svensson	108,328	Son of Sven.
10	Gustafsson	75,227	Son of Gustaf.
11	Pettersson	68,336	Son of Petter.
12	Jonsson	59,904	Son of Jon or Jonas.
13	Jansson	52,003	Son of Jan.
14	Hansson	45,488	Son of Hans.
15	Bengtsson	35,585	Son of Bengt.
16	Jönsson	34,500	Son of Jöns.
17	Petersson	31,755	Son of Peter.
18	Carlsson	30,026	Son of Carl.
19	Lindberg	27,367	Lind=linden, berg=mountain.
20	Magnusson	27,293	Son of Magnus.
21	Gustavsson	26,625	Son of Gustav.
22	Olofsson	25,489	Son of Olof.
23	Lindström	25,467	Lind=linden, ström=stream.
24	Lindgren	23,302	Lind=linden, gren=branch.
25	Axelsson	22,929	Son of Axel.
26	Lundberg	21,658	Lund=copse, berg=mountain.
27	Jakobsson	21,539	Son of Jakob.
28	Bergström	21,428	Berg=mountain, ström=stream.
29	Lundgren	20,948	Lund=copse, gren=branch.
30	Berg	19,813	Berg=mountain.

Note that several surnames are just variants of the same names such as Gustafsson/Gustavsson, Karlsson/Carlsson, Pettersson/Petersson and that Olsson is just a contraction of Olofsson.

Swedish surnames in Finland

	Surname	Number of people	Etymology
1	Johansson	7,438	Son of Johan.
2	Lindholm	7,077	Lind=linden, holm=islet
3	Nyman	7,000	Newman.
4	Karlsson	6,174	Son of Karl.
5	Lindström	5,859	Lind=linden, ström=stream.
6	Andersson	5,300	Son of Anders.
7	Eriksson	5,220	Son of Erik.
8	Lindroos	4,623	Lind=linden, roos=rose.
9	Lindqvist	4,546	Lind=linden, qvist=twig.
10	Lindberg	3,995	Lind=linden, berg=mountain.
11	Helenius	3,903	Unclear origin.
12	Lindgren	3,590	Lind=linden, gren=branch.
13	Helin	3,525	Unclear origin.
14	Eklund	3,491	Ek=oak, lund=copse.
15	Gustafsson	3,429	Son of Gustaf.
16	Blomqvist	3,336	Blom=bloom, qvist=twig.
17	Nylund	3,233	Ny=new, lund=copse.
18	Lindfors	3,196	Lind=linden, fors=rapids.
19	Jansson	3,112	Son of Jan.
20	Nyberg	3,022	Ny=new, berg=mountain.