Gone it appears are the old-fashioned names of Asgar, Oddbjørn (pronounced od-b-yurn) and Gulbrand for boys and Hildebjørn, Oddrun or Ingeborg for girls! Now people want more international sounding names.
Apparently, there is a definite east/west divide in the type of name parents choose for their children. Parents around Oslo and the south eastern side of Norway tend to choose more 'modern' or international names than those living on the west coast or in the north. If eastern Norwegian parents choose a traditional name it wil be spelt in the tradtional way, whereas those on the west coast will use a simpler spelling, for example Ola, instead of Olav.
The type of name you choose may also reflect your expectations and aspirations for your child, apparently. A common name such as Anya or Kristian shows that you want your child to fit in and be less obvious in a crowd, whereas an unusual name makes them instantly memorable (no getting away with school pranks then!).
If that is true, then the mere existence of such strange names as Joppeline (girls name) or August (boys name) means that the Scandinavian idea of Jante Loven (the law of Jante) whereby individuality and success is seen generally as a negative thingy, is gradually fading. Traditionally Scandinavian society has been extremely egalitarian, with a large and comfortable middle class, and very few ultra-rich or ultra-poor people. To bear a name that no-one else has really heard of certainly makes you stand out fom the crowd and may give you a psychological and commercially measurable advantage over bog standard names such as John Smith or Jane Brown.
So boys in Oslo get called Glenn, Kenneth, Daniel, Frank, Roger, Kent and Tommy, while girls are called Anita, Jeanette, Linda, Mona, Monica or Nadia. While to the west of the country boys are called Henrik, Jens, Peder/Petter, Preben, Axel, Christian, Lars, Magnus or Andreas and the girls are more often called Ingird, Hedda, anne, Marie, Vibeke, Victoria, Nora or Thea.
Also, I should not forget that a good 30% of all Norwegians have a double name, such as Karl Petter, or Ida Maria. These names are never shortened as we do in the UK - it can become quite a mouthful when you have to call a colleague over quickly and are stumbling through Anna Kathrina or Lukas Alexander!
Last but not least, I also found out that Norway, as any other European country, is experiencing a change in demographics, which probably explains why the top boy name in 2011 in Oslo was Mohammed!
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