August 2024 – New trends in Nordic Socio-onomastics

by Sofia Kotilainen

In 19–23 August 2024 I had a privilege to participate the 28th International Congress of Onomastic Sciences in Helsinki. It was inspiring to hear and see so many great presentations of colleagues. They introduced plenty of new perspectives to onomastic research.

Theme of the multidisciplinary conference was Sustainability in names, naming and onomastics. I have studied the history of inherited first names in the Finnish rural families. Recently, I have started to conceptualize these findings and results of my earlier research. Using the concept of onomastic literacy has proved to be fruitful in reaching the mentalities of the people and local communities studied.

Onomastic literacy means the knowledge and skills the parents of a child need to interpret the local naming culture and communal norms of naming. Parents had to be familiar with the traditions of the family and the locality to be able to choose a ‘suitable’ name. In this respect, names functioned as cultural symbols connected with identities and kin networks.

Honouring the ancestors

Universally, the most common social norm governing the choice of names has consisted in giving a baby a name handed down within the family, mainly the name of a grandparent. Giving the name of a living relative would have detracted from this person’s good fortune as it correspondingly added to that of the younger namesake. And especially in the case of grandparents, it may have been thought that the blessing and luck received by the oldest members of the family would in this way be transferred to the newborn baby. For example, in Finland in the olden days, it was said that a child would turn out like his or her namesake.

There would seem to have been many kinds of religious and social functions attached to the choice of names of ancestors besides honouring them. For example, namesakes might have been thought to hold certain responsibilities towards each other when both, for example a grandparent and a grandchild, lived in a certain community at the same time. It was perhaps possible to perceive in the child family traits or a resemblance to a forebear, after whom the parents then might wish to name him or her. Behind this way of thinking can be perceived an ancient Finno-Ugric belief about the soul, according to which a child who receives an ancestor’s name also inherits his or her persona or soul.

This then was the case when a child was named after a dead relative. The child was in this way symbolically connected to the earlier bearer of the name. It was believed that when for example the first-born boy in the family was given his grandfather’s name, the latter would in some way continue his life in the new member of the family. Even though the belief had spread into Scandinavia in the pre-Christian era, it continued to exert an influence later. It has been assumed in earlier research that in Finland, too, the relics of such naming traditions can be perceived right up to the twentieth century.

Inherited first names in the Finnish rural families

The above-mentioned conceptions of the early modern beliefs and mentalities that regulated naming, were based on oral memory accounts that were mainly used as a source in ethnological research rather than on the systematic empirical use of written documents as sources of historical research. However, with the help of extensive collective biographical databases, for example, and by utilizing the genealogical method, it is possible to examine to what extent traditional beliefs any longer influenced naming practices from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries and were realized in it in practice.

In all ages an inherited family name has played an important part in the shaping of a person’s identity. Particularly in the pre-modern age, a personal name also made rural people a part of a family community and defined their place in it. In the agrarian society of former times, the traditions of the family were respected. The networks between relatives also formed an economic and social safety net on which a person could rely. Inherited names were also associated with a feeling of the continuity of the family and traditions. That is why it was important to name a child after his or her grandparents or parents because in the name-givers’ world view it bound a child and his or her future into the enduring immaterial heritage of the family.

The practices of naming did not change sharply in the shift from the early modern to the modern period, and many interacting cultural layers from different periods continued to influence naming practices in an essential way. The relics of ancient practices and beliefs were preserved to some extent right up to the twentieth century. A more exact analysis of local naming practices using a variety of document sources and collective biographical databases shows that, regarding inherited names at least, the modernization of naming practices took place slowly. They were affected not only by the local living conditions of the community but also by the complex and asynchronous effects of the modernization of society.

Recycling the names

Family traditions, being grandmother’s or grandfather’s namesake, or having name of a valued member of the family community, were signs that name-givers, i.e. usually parents of the children being culturally ‘literate’ and honouring the elder generations in Finnish rural local communities. This created sustainability and good reputation of the first names of the forefathers and -mothers, as they were inherited from generation to generation.

Onomastic sustainability has been important for the development of social traditions, values, identities and intergenerational relations. Local naming traditions change slowly and may influence naming practices of several generations. Active reusing the names keeps the cultural heritage alive.

Regnbuen som symbol for LGBT+ og Pride

Siden slutningen af 1970’erne har regnbueflaget været et vartegn for LGBT+ og Pride. Hidtil havde en lyserød trekant været symbol for LGBT+-aktivister, men den bar samtidig en undertrykkende kvalitet, da den lyserøde trekant som et stigma blev sat på brystet af homoseksuelle fanger i de nazistiske koncentrationslejre. I 1978 bad Harvey Milk (1930-1978), der var homoseksuel og byrådsmedlem i San Francisco, sin ven Gilbert Baker (1951-2017) om at designe et banner til den forestående San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade i juni samme år. Det blev til det første regnbueflag, som bestod af otte horisontale striber i farverne pink, rød, orange, gul, grøn, turkis, blå og lilla, der hver havde sin symbolik, henholdsvis seksualitet, liv, helbredelse, sol, natur, kunst, harmoni og ånd.

På grund af produktionsproblemer med farverne pink og turkis udgik disse to farver snart efter, og det seksfarvede banner blev herefter den mest kendte version af regnbueflaget. Efterhånden vandt flaget stor udbredelse, og i dag ses det i stort set hele verden ved Pride-parader og LGBT+-demonstrationer, og regnbueflaget opfattes generelt som en markør for mangfoldighed og inklusion.

Vejen til Regnbuen

At det netop er denne plads, der har fået et navn, som på den vis hylder mangfoldighed, er ikke nogen tilfældighed. Igennem årenes løb har der ligget flere LGBT+-barer, -caféer og natklubber ved pladsen eller i den umiddelbare nærhed, og siden 1996 har Rådhuspladsen været et væsentligt samlingssted for LGBT+-personer, både i forbindelse med protester og fejringer, ved Copenhagen Pride.

Den vigtigste årsag til, at en del af Rådhuspladsen fik navnet, er dog nok, at netop Rådhuspladsen for 35 år siden var stedet, hvor folk samledes for at fejre verdens første registrerede partnerskab mellem to af samme køn, nemlig Axel og Eigil Axgil. Axel Lundahl Madsen (1915-2011) og Eigil Eskildsen (1922-1995) fandt sammen i 1950, og da man på den tid som homoseksuel hverken kunne indgå ægteskab eller antage sin partners efternavn, dannede de af dele af deres fornavne det ny efternavn Axgil. Parret havde været forlovet i ikke mindre end 39 år, da de den 1. oktober 1989 endelig kunne træde ud på Rådhuspladsen i København som registrerede partnere.

Oprindeligt var Regnbuepladsen da også tiltænkt navnet Axgils Plads for at hædre og hylde parret Axel og Eigil. Imidlertid kom det samtidig med sagsbehandlingen af navnet Axgils Plads i år 2012 frem, at Eigil havde været frivillig ved Østfronten og været medlem af Waffen-SS under Anden Verdenskrig, hvorfor han blev fundet uværdig at navngive efter. Derfor gik man i første omgang videre med navnet Axel Axgils Plads, der alene ville hylde Axel, som havde været forkæmper for homoseksuelles rettigheder. Men snart dukkede også historier op, der lagde Axel til last, og man skrinlagde tanken om overhovedet at navngive pladsen efter Axgil-parret.

Trods heftige protester og voldsom debat var der fra rådhuset fortsat opbakning til, at pladsen fik et navn med tilknytning til LGBT+-miljøet. Blandt andet var navnet Hannah Bjarnhofs Plads i spil. Hannah Bjarnhof (1928-2002) var en skuespiller og sanger, der sent i livet identificerede sig selv som lesbisk. I sidste ende faldt valget dog på at navngive pladsen efter regnbuen og regnbueflaget. Et navn, Regnbuepladsen, der i forhold til navne som Axel Axgils Plads eller Hannah Bjarnhofs Plads måske har den fordel, at det ikke drukner i de mange navne på byens gader og pladser, der er givet efter personer, for eksempel politikere og forfattere. Navnet Regnbuepladsen har en mere umiddelbar genkendelse.

Regnbueflaget kan som symbol på mangfoldighed og inklusion tilpasses minoriteter inden for LGBT+. Her er det jødiske LGBT+-personer med regnbueflag tilført Davidsstjerner ved Copenhagen Pride Parade i 2019. Foto: Steen Hansen.

Et navn med en påmindelse

I år 2016 ansøgte Copenhagen Pride Københavns Kommune om at opstille en flagstang på Regnbuepladsen, hvor regnbueflaget skulle vaje dag og nat. Sagen blev behandlet af Teknik- og Miljøudvalget på rådhuset, og efter en del debat om, hvem der skulle stå for finansieringen, kunne daværende teknik- og miljøborgmester Morten Kabell (Enhedslisten) den 8. maj 2017 hejse verdens første, og vist også hidtil eneste, kommunale regnbueflag på pladsen. Dermed understreges Regnbuepladsens samhørighed med regnbueflaget og dets symbolik endnu tydeligere i gadebilledet.

Som nævnt indledningsvist blev Regnbuepladsens 10-årsjubilæum for nyligt markeret med en række taler. En af talerne var Københavns nuværende kultur- og fritidsborgmester Mia Nyegaard (Radikale Venstre), som ved markeringen nævnede, at Regnbuepladsens navn og regnbueflaget skal minde os om, at vi ikke er i mål, for mængden af hadforbrydelser og vold mod transkønnede og seksuelle minoriteter er i stigning i København. For borgmesteren minder Regnbuepladsen os om, ”at diversiteten, mangfoldigheden og kærligheden bliver nødt til at vinde over hadet, diskriminationen og volden”. Med et navn, der har så markant symbolværdi og ideologisk tyngde, minder Regnbuepladsen os om, hvordan København kunne og burde være.

Month: August 2024

SUSTAINABILITY OF INHERITED FORENAMES