Americanised Swedish names

 

In front of the custom registration, Castle Garden, New York, some time between 1855 and 1890, before the immigration center were moved to Ellis island.

 

Some of my relatives that emigrated to the US or Canada appeared to have read up before hand, and registered a more English-friendly name and family name already when entering the country. If not, when they came to the harbors of New York, Boston or elsewhere and first met the US immigration officers, they got their names butchered. These civil servants tried to turn the Swede's strange, foreign, non-Anglosaxian, into "English", of some sort.

Custom officer at Castle Garden, New York, some time between 1855 amd 1890. Perhaps he is trying to register Mr. and Mrs. Gösta Öhman and Bengta Larsdotter, their daughter Ann-Charlotte and their young son Lars. Why doesn't the woman have the same familly name as her husband?! Aren't they married? How does he spell his name? "Goethe Ohman"? "Penta Louisastre"? "Ann-Charlotte and Louise". Yes, that looks fine!

 

Over time, the new Americans discovered that most of their country men could not pronounce their names, be they of English, German, French, Italian...origin. Perhaps the few Norwegians they met could. And every 5 or 10 years at the national or state census, they saw their names spelled differently by each officer. Sooner or later, they gave up and changed their names to something that worked better in English. 

This has caused me some difficulties when tracking them through north America. I imagine it can be as difficult in the other direction. Over time I have learned some of the most common Anglifications of Swedish names, and I have collected them below. It's not meant to be a complete list. Just dropping the extre "s" in patroymicon names is by far the most common, but in other cases it's a more creative...or random (?)...change.

Swedish name:                        Anglified name:

Anders                                   Andrew
Bengta                                   Betsey
Ernst                                      Ernest
Frank                                     Franz
Fridolf                                   Fred
Henrik                                   Henry
Johan                                     John
Johannes                                John
Karl                                       Charles
Lars                                        Lousie
Pär                                          Peter
Pehr                                        Peter
Per                                          Peter 
Ralf                                        Ralph

Swedish family name:            Anglified family name:

Alberg, Ahlberg                     Ahlberg
Andersson                              Anderson
Bergström                              Bergstrom
Carlsson                                 Charlson
Fransson                                 Franzén, Francin, Fransén, Franson
Fredricksson, Fredriksson     Fredrikson, Fredrickson
Gustafsson, Gustavsson         Gustafson, Gustavson
Hansson                                 Hanson
Hård                                       Hard
Haraldsson                             Haralson
Hellström                               Hellstrom
Jansson                                   Johnson
Johansso                                 Johnson 
Johanesson                             Johnson
Jonsson                                   Johnson
Karlsson                                  Charlsson
Lundkvist                                Lundquist
Nilsson                                    Nelson
Nordkvist                                Nordquist
Svensson                                 Swanson
Thulin                                     Thulean
Åberg, Åhberg                        Berg
Öhman                                    Ohman