Re: Off topic: Nomen et omen

[Patricia M Godfrey pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Robert's account of his own family-name history reminded me that 30 to 40
years ago I worked with an Icelander, whose only surname was his
patronym, and who told me that most, if not all, Icelanders still used
the patronym as their only surname. (And so, quite logically, Icelandic
women were all Lucy Stoners, keeping their patronym life-long, regardless
of marital status.) Don't know if that's still the case, but it seems
when Icelanders get into the news, their names still end -son or -dottir
( I think there's an accent there?)
	I wonder could the Russian custom of patronym as middle name be a
leftover from Varangian days? Except that it seems more nearly universal
among Great Russians than among Ukrainians. And the Ukrainians (as some
group of them used to remind us, in 10-page, single-spaced, red-ink
letters, when I worked for Grolier) are the "right-line descendents" of
the East Vikings who went trading and raiding up the Dnieper to
Byzantium, founding God-protected Kiev, the mother of Russian cities,
along the way. (Does anyone know the correct spelling of the Varangian
name for Constantinople? It's something like Mickelgard or Miklegard--or
maybe with two a's?)
	I bet the Indonesians never suffer from identity theft!
Patricia