Icelandic Naming Committee

Icelandic Naming Committee

Icelandic: Mannanafnanefnd
Committee overview
Formed	1991 (1991)
Parent Committee	Ministry of Justice
Website	island.is/en/search-in-icelandic-names

The Icelandic Naming Committee^[1] (Icelandic: Mannanafnanefnd;^[2] pronounced [ˈmanːaˌnapnaˌnɛmt])—also known in English as the Personal Names Committee^[3]—maintains an official register of approved Icelandic given names and governs the introduction of new given names into Icelandic culture.

Composition and mission

The Naming Committee was established in 1991^[2] to determine whether new given names not previously used in Iceland are suitable for integration into the country's language and culture. The committee comprises three appointees who serve for four years, appointed by the Minister of Justice—one to be nominated by the Icelandic language council within the Icelandic Language Committee, one by the faculty of philosophy of the University of Iceland, and one by the university's faculty of law.^[3]

A name not already on the official list of approved names must be submitted to the naming committee for approval. A new name is considered for its compatibility with Icelandic tradition^[4] and for the likelihood that it might cause the bearer embarrassment.^[5] Under Article 5 of the Personal Names Act,^[5] names must be compatible with Icelandic grammar (in which all nouns, including proper names, have grammatical gender and change their forms in an orderly fashion according to the language's case system). Names must also contain only letters occurring in the Icelandic alphabet, and with only occasional exceptions, a name's grammatical gender previously had to match the sex of the person bearing the name.^[6]

Foreigners and their children are allowed to keep their own names and loanwords from other languages are permitted. Loanwords must have other name bearers in the country and follow the grammar of the original language or have adjusted grammar for the Icelandic language.^[7]

In 2019, the Icelandic parliament passed the Gender Autonomy Act (Icelandic: Lög um kynrænt sjálfræði), guaranteeing transgender and intersex individuals' right to gender self-identification, including the recognition of non-binary gender in law.^[8] To this effect, given names were no longer restricted by gender. Moreover, Icelanders who are officially registered as non-binary will be permitted to use the gender-neutral suffix -bur ("child") instead of -son or -dóttir.^[9]

As of the end of 2012^[update], the Personal Names Register (Mannanafnaskrá) contained 1,712 male names and 1,853 female names.^[10]

Controversies

Jón Gnarr

Jón Gnarr, former mayor of Reykjavík, protested the committee's denial of his request to legally drop "Kristinsson" from his name despite his desire to disassociate himself from his father. Gnarr pointed out that if Robert Mugabe moved to Iceland, as a foreigner he would be allowed to keep that non-conforming name, but that native Icelanders were not allowed to have non-conforming names.^[11] He was also unable to legally name his daughter "Camilla" after her grandmother; it was instead spelled "Kamilla" because C is not part of the Icelandic alphabet.^[12] Jón was allowed to legally change his name in 2015;^[13] however, Gnarr, the surname adopted by him and his children in 2005, was only recognized by the courts in 2018; it was legally considered a middle name before then.^[14]

Blær Bjarkardóttir Rúnarsdóttir

Passport of Blær Bjarkardóttir Rúnarsdóttir, using Stúlka (Icelandic for "girl") in place of her real given name

The committee refused to allow Blær Bjarkardóttir Rúnarsdóttir (born 1997) to be registered under the name given to her as a baby, on the grounds that the masculine noun blær ("gentle breeze" in Icelandic) could be used only as a man's name. Blær—identified in official records as Stúlka^[15] ("girl" in Icelandic)—and her mother, Björk Eiðsdóttir, challenged the committee's decision in court, arguing that Blær had been used by Nobel Prize–winning Icelandic author Halldór Laxness as the name of a female character in his 1957 novel The Fish Can Sing (Brekkukotsannáll).^[16][17][18] One other woman in Iceland was already registered at the time with the name Blær,^[6] and two declensions (sets of case forms)—one masculine and one feminine—exist for the name.^[19]

On 31 January 2013, the Reykjavík district court ruled in the family's favour and overruled the naming committee, finding that Blær could in fact be both a man's and a woman's name and that Blær had a constitutional right to her own name, and rejecting government claims that it was necessary to deny her request in order to protect the Icelandic language.^[20] After the court's decision, Iceland's interior minister confirmed that the government would accept the ruling and would not appeal the case to the country's Supreme Court.^[21][22] The chair of the naming committee, as well as a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, said the ruling in Blær's case could prompt the government to revisit the current laws on personal names.^[1]

Duncan and Harriet Cardew

The committee refused to accept the names of Duncan and Harriet Cardew—Icelandic-born children of a British father and an Icelandic mother—because their names did not meet the criteria for being added to the registry of approved names.^[23] The children had originally used passports with the substitute names Drengur (boy) and Stúlka (girl); however, in 2014, Icelandic authorities refused to renew Harriet's passport at all without a legally acceptable name.^[24] Since the Cardews were about to travel to France, they obtained emergency British passports for Duncan and Harriet; the parents also announced they would file a formal complaint objecting to the naming committee's rejection of their children's names and the passport office's refusal to renew their Icelandic passports.^[25] The Cardews announced in June 2016 that they had won their case and their children's names would be recognised.^[26]

References

1. "State Not to Appeal in Iceland Name Case". Iceland Review Online. 5 February 2013. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
2. Barker, Simon (2 September 2009). "What's in a Name? – Part 1: Naming and Historicity". Iceland Review Online. www.icelandreview.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
3. "Personal Names Act (No. 45)". Iceland: Ministry of the Interior. 17 May 1996. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
4. Úrskurðir og álit [Decisions and Opinions] (2010). "Meginreglur um mannanöfn" [Principles Governing Personal Names] (in Icelandic). Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
5. "Name giving". Þjóðskrá Íslands [National Register of Iceland]. Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2021.
6. "What is the general census (sic) in Iceland about the name issue of Blær?". Iceland Review Online. 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
7. Kristjánsson, Alexander (25 August 2021). "Mannanafnanefnd slakar á reglum". RÚV.
8. Ćirić, Jelena (2019-06-19). "Iceland's Gender Autonomy Act is a Step Forward for Trans and Intersex Rights". Iceland Review. Archived from the original on 2019-06-19.
9. Kyzer, Larissa (2019-06-22). "Icelandic names will no longer be gendered". Iceland Review. Archived from the original on 2019-07-02. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
10. Andersen, Anna (3 January 2013). "Icelandic girl fights for right to her own name". Denver Post. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
11. Cox, Patrick (1 July 2014). "No longer mayor of Reykjavik, Jón Gnarr can restart his career as a comedian. Not that he ever stopped". Public Radio International. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
12. Kyzer, Larissa (26 November 2013). "Jón Gnarr Criticizes "Stupid Law Against Creativity"". The Reykjavík Grapevine. Archived from the original on 29 October 2014. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
13. Karlsson, Stefán (2015-10-22). "Jón Gnarr fær að heita Jón Gnarr" [Jón Gnarr is allowed to be named Jón Gnarr]. Vísir.is (in Icelandic). Archived from the original on 2015-12-06. Retrieved 2016-01-19.
14. "Allusionist 87. Name v. Law". 19 October 2018.
15. Hauksdóttir, Gunnhildur (2016-02-09). "The Cases of Gnarr, Skaði and Blær – The Name Committee, A follow-up". IceNews. Archived from the original on 2016-02-10.
16. "Icelandic teenager sues state for right to use her name". The Daily Telegraph. 3 January 2013. Archived from the original on 31 January 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
17. "Icelandic girl wins legal right to use her given name". CBC Radio. 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 31 May 2015. Retrieved 20 May 2015. Interview with Blær Bjarkardóttir Rúnarsdóttir (in English).
18. Chappell, Bill (4 January 2013). "A Girl Fights To Be Called By Her Name In Iceland, Suing Government". NPR. Archived from the original on 2 July 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2014.
19. As a masculine name, Blær is declined in Icelandic grammar as Blær (nominative), Blæ (accusative/dative), and Blæs (genitive). As a feminine name, the declension is Blær (N), Blæ (A), Blævi (D), and Blævar (G). See "What is the general census (sic) in Iceland about the name issue of Blær?". Iceland Review Online. 10 January 2013. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
20. "Réttur Blævar ríkari en samfélagshagsmunir" [Blær's rights outweigh community interests] (in Icelandic). RÚV. 31 January 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
21. "Blær gets to keep her name – Government does not appeal". News of Iceland. 1 February 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
22. "Blær Bjarkardóttir celebrates the court's decision". News of Iceland. 4 February 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013. At the end of this article, there is a picture of a poster with the grammatical declension of Blær as a feminine noun.
23. "Icelandic girls can't be called Harriet, government tells family". The Guardian. 26 June 2014. Archived from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
24. "Girl denied passport because name is 'non-Icelandic'". London Evening Standard. 27 June 2014. Archived from the original on 29 June 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
25. "British Passport Granted To Harriet Cardew". The Reykjavík Grapevine. 26 June 2014. Archived from the original on 11 July 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2014.
26. "Victory for the British-Icelandic siblings named 'girl' and 'boy' on passports". Evening Standard. 29 June 2016. Archived from the original on 2 July 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2016.

Further reading

• Helen Zaltzman; Jón Gnarr; Sigurður Konráðsson (foreman of the committee) (19 October 2018). "Name v. Law". The Allusionist (Podcast). (transcript). Radiotopia. {{cite podcast}}: External link in |others= (help)

External links

• List of names accepted and rejected by the Mannanafnanefnd at Island.is
• Mannanafnanefnd application form at Domsmalaraduneyti.is (in Icelandic)^{[dead link‍]}
• Larissa Kyzer: What’s in a Name? (article in English mentioning recent approvals and denials)