[geeks] How old am I and where do I come from...

[Bjorn Ramqvist]

Bill Bradford wrote:
> 
> Whats the "correct" way to pronounce your last name?  Your first is
> easy enough...

Don't think the first three letters as "ram" (like, "ram it in"), think
"raam" (a straighter "a"-sound, but not longer sounding).

> Is the "v" silent?  "ram-quist" ?

The "v" is not silent. There are spellings with the "u" insteand of "v",
but they both are sounding with a "v".
The "Q" is not really pronounced as "Q" (as in "queue"), but as a "k"
sound. Some spellings are with a "k" instead of a "q".

Ramqvist
Ramquist
Ramkvist   <- "correct"

It's the latter that is the "correct one", although, spelling things
with "q" instead of "k" has been for some hundred years ago. (The old
swedish language was many times made up with "f" and "v" with similar
sound.. "Gustaf" was pronounced "Gustav", although it never was spelled
that way. Much confusing.)

If you brake those two words apart, you get:
ram = frame
kvist = twig

The two words have nothing in common, but the name had been made up from
something that took place or happened some hundred years ago, most
probably.


The old usual way of naming peoples last name was based on some very
simple rules:
If your father was named "Sven", your last name would be "Bill
Svensson", as "Bill who is Svens son". If Amy had a father named
"Harald", her last name would be "Amy Haraldsdotter", as "Amy who is
Haralds daughter". My last name is older than that, I think, since it
diverts from that rule.

That namingrule is long way gone nowadays, since you now inherit your
parents name. I think that even is written somewhere as a social law,
not sure. (1)
If "Anders Jonsson" and "Maria Nilsson" get married, she gets his last
name. She still can keep her old last name, or do a combination (like
"Marian Jonsson-Nilsson"). But I think that's probably common elsewhere
in this world.

/Bjorn

(1) By some funny-ass rule in this country, you can NOT change your last
name from birth to exactly whatever you want, based on one simple rule:
You have to have a unique name. I, for one thing, can't change last name
to "Svensson", cause there is already 100,000+ of people called
"Svensson". Therefore, I MUST change it to something completely
different, that isn't used by anyone else. There's even rules about
that. I can't, for example, name myself "Bjrn Bigboner" or "Bjrn
Likesbigmelons" or something like that. :-)