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Comment by andyjohnson0 | Hacker News Reader

"Geirfinnur Einarsson may have shared the same surname as Gudmundur but the two were not related."

Very minor nitpick. "Einarsson" is a patronymic derived from a parent's given name, not a surname or family name as is common in many western cultures. In the case of the article, Einar is a common Icelandic given name [1] that both victims fathers shared.

The Icelandic naming system [2] is interesting. Basically, children get a given name plus a patronymic (father's give name with son or dóttir suffix) or matronymic (mother's given name with son or dóttir suffix). So people two generations apart in the same family have completely different names, and non-siblings having the same patronymic isn't an indicator of kinship.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einar

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name

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Historically it was much the same across Scandinavia.

Most surnames end in son (sen in Denmark) or dotter (daughter), although people started using their parent's surname some time last century.

Its fun to see the tradition survives in Iceland.

In Sweden its becoming slightly trendy to give your children surnames ending in YOUR-FIRST-NAME+possessive+son/dotter again.

That tradition, or the remnants of it (as in retaining -sen as a family name rather than as a patronymic) seem to have almost disappeared in my part of Norway.

The article does, however, correctly refer to people by their given names. You would never refer to Geirfinnur Einarsson by "Einarsson" or "Mr. Einarsson"; even in a formal context, even if he were the president or other high-status person, you'd use either "Geirfinnur" or "Geirfinnur Einarsson".

Interestingly thought it's easy to find press releases and related material from the Icelandic government itself which uses Icelandic patronyms as surnames. E.g. [1] from the Icelandic Minstry for Foreign Affairs referring to the foreign minister, Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson as "Mr. Sveinsson".

1. http://eng.utanrikisraduneyti.is/news-and-publications/nr/77...

I wouldn't be surprised if this came from whatever translation office the ministry uses.

It's possible but I think this was probably done to make things simpler for the reader. Often this is to comply with rules. For example in international sports the jerseys will usually have "Einarsson" or "Guðmundsdóttir" on the back which is very confusing. Another example are children who were born outside of the country and had to be given their father's last name (so names like Anna Jónsson exist).

There are also many stories of couples who were not allowed to get a hotel room together because they didn't share a last name.

An ex co-worker of mine had that happen to him. Him and his wife traveled to Austria in the 80s and were having trouble checking into a room in some rural town because it didn't seem as though they were married.

He was able to find an encyclopedia on a bookshelf in the lobby that said something to the effect of "In Iceland women do not take their husband's name when they marry". That resolved that situation.

Yes, this patronymic naming is common in South Asia. Except they go one step further and put the surname in front of the given name. So if your father's name is X and your personal name is Y, formally you are called X Y.

I am from Africa where this weird inconsistency meant that many of my personal records have my given name as my dad's name and my name as my surname. Made the paper trail confusing as fuck when I came to America and had to prove that I was who I was.

Yeah this alway made for fun holidays when I was a kid; my dad last name is Ólafsson, my mom's Magnusdóttir, my sister's Hlynsdóttir and mine Hlynsson. Hotel staff often could not get that at all.

Hah, add to that the confusion that me and my sister have the patronymic from our father's second name.

Russians have an interesting mix there. Family name is used, but it is common to address the person by given name and patronymic.

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