Real patronymics were outlawed in 1923 in Norway (earlier in Denmark). Before that, naming tradition was that the given name (Erik) was the most important, and

Real patronymics were outlawed in 1923 in Norway (earlier in Denmark). Before that, naming tradition was that the given name (Erik) was the most important, and you'd add a place/farm name (Horsebay) and/or patronymic (Sigurdsson) and/or nickname (The Foot) if you needed to disambiguate. Given and patronymic were fixed, while farm names and nicknames could change over time. This works well in a local community, but made it hard for the central government to collect taxes and conscript expendables^Winfantrymen. ==See also== * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oeconym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oeconym * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_modernism#Standardized_legal_names https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_modernism#Standardized_le... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_variable https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_variable * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis