To elaborate on what taejo said, in Danish personal names do not change spelling, even if they mean the same. It is not uncommon to see people's given names or

To elaborate on what taejo said, in Danish personal names do not change spelling, even if they mean the same. It is not uncommon to see people's given names or surnames being small variation of similar names. But in these terms, you should think of »Kierkegård« and »Kierkegaard« in the same manner as 'Philip' or « Philippe ». They are the same name, pronounced the same way and mean the same, but spelt differently. Of course, some do make mistakes and spell it in a more common way. My surname, for instance, is on occasion spelt »Utzon« because of Jørn Utzon (who designed the Sydney Opera House), who's surname sound like mine. But the problem in Danish isn't just limited to personal names and proper nouns. In English, words like 'subtle', 'segue' and 'colonel' are not pronounced as you'd think (from their spelling), because they are loanwords, and you just need to know this. This problem is more unfortunate in Danish, as it is far more common, even amongst Germanic words. It can be hard to explain to foreigners, why the o's in »mormor« is pronounced differently ([ɒ] and [o], respectively).