The Swedish Name-Day Calendar
The Swedish Name-Day Calendar

Summary/Abstract: The author deals with the changes of first names listed in Swedish calendars. She reminds the reader that the first Swedish almanac containing feasts and published by the Catholic Church comes from as early as the 16th century. A much later calendar, issued at the very start of the 20th century, is much different from its predecessors: more than 150 saints’ names had been excluded and substituted by 177 new names, while Latin names had been often interchanged with their Swedish forms. A substantial transformation appeared in the 1980s when a new calendar was released containing three names per day, while the first name was always identical with the hitherto official calendar. More changes were introduced in 1993 and 2001. All of the three sets of transformations had their origins in the suggestions of Swedish researchers in onomastics.

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