# Sex changes in Iceland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 16, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687 "2006-10-16T21:22:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sonus32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sonus32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sonus32)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/1 "2006-10-16T21:22:30Z")
I don’t know much about Iceland but I do watch a lot of soccer, and it appears that all Icelandic soccer players have the suffix -sson (if male) or -dottir (if female). Three questions: 1. Is this a legal requirement, or only a tradition? 2. Does this requirement/tradition annoy Icelandic feminists? 3. If you have a sex change, do you have to have a name change too? ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/2 "2006-10-16T22:53:52Z")
The -sson and -dottir names are not surnames, but patronymics. So Peter, son of Magnus, would be Peter Magnusson. His sister Helga would be Helga Magnusdottir. As far as I’m aware, this is not a legal requirement but everyone in Iceland forms their name this way. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/3 "2006-10-16T23:07:05Z")
My grandfather’s name was Jon Jonsson, named for his father, Jon Torfisson. My grandmother’s anglicized name was Pauline Palsson; her father’s name was Pal (Paul). I would assume that the name would be changed. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/4 "2006-10-16T23:15:31Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] As far as I’m aware, this is not a legal requirement but everyone in Iceland forms their name this way. [/QUOTE] It’s customary for Icelanders to use the patronymic form. But I don’t think it’s a requirement for others who live there. When I was in Iceland last year I had a guide who had originally come from France and married an Icelandic man. She hadn’t altered her name to the patronymic form. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2006, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/5 "2006-10-16T23:36:20Z")
Icelandic women are free to give their children matronymics instead. There are also a few Icelandic families who bear convential surnames. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/6 "2006-10-17T02:58:42Z")
[QUOTE=sonus32] 3) If you have a sex change, do you have to have a name change too? [/QUOTE] Well, most americans or europeans who have sex changes do go thru the legal process to change their names. Since most of their first names tend to reflect a particular gender. I don’t see why Icelanders wouldn’t do the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/7 "2006-10-17T03:06:35Z")
I’d actually been meaning to ask this for a while, and I’m glad I saw this thread. Here’s the deal with Icelandic sex changes that I’m curious about. Magnus Svensson has a son, Paul, who is named Paul Magnusson. Paul grows up, is transsexual, has a sex change, and changes her name to Helga. Does she leave her last name as Magnusson, or does she change it to Magnusdottir? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/8 "2006-10-17T03:08:53Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth] My grandfather’s name was Jon Jonsson, [/QUOTE] Did he live in Visconsin? [ducks] ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/9 "2006-10-17T04:02:08Z")
GingerOfTheNorth writes: \> My grandfather’s name was Jon Jonsson, named for his father, Jon Torfisson. So I guess that your grandfather, when he emigrated to Canada from Iceland, stopped first in Newfoundland and said, “It’s just swelteringly hot here,” so he decided to move on to some place with a more moderate climate, like northern Alberta. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/10 "2006-10-17T04:26:18Z")
Actually, Manitoba - but he found his way West eventually. ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/11 "2006-10-17T05:36:44Z")
From what I understand, (see [domsmalaraduneyti.is](http://eng.domsmalaraduneyti.is/information/nr/125) for more info, including national legal requirements about names) patronymics in Iceland are less a part of someone’s given name and more of a nationally agreed-upon descriptor for when you need to specify WHICH Gunnar got drunk and fell in the fjord, or WHICH Inga in Reykjavik you’re trying to call. It’s like saying “the one with the curly hair” or “the one who lives over by the lake”, except that they’ve all agreed to use the same one. They wouldn’t call someone “Mr. Eiriksson” or “Ms. Jonsdottir” just like you wouldn’t call someone “Mr. The one who works in the marketing department” or whatever. Note that women do not change their names when they get married, and that matronymics are possible as well. I can’t find specific information on the transgender experience in Iceland, but I’d be extremely surprised if -sson wasn’t changed to -dottir, or vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/12 "2006-10-17T06:01:29Z")
I seem to recall a post on this topic a few years ago where a single Icelandic mother gave birth to a son in Spain or Portugal. Due to local law there, the son’s surname had to match that of his mother, so it was Erik Godmundsdottir or some such thing, completely inappropriate to Icelandic practice. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/13 "2006-10-17T09:19:10Z")
Today’s entry in the “You Live And Learn” department: [Magnus Magnusson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Magnusson), Brit-based TV presenter and writer, is not after all Magnus’s son as I’d always supposed - his family, being based in Edinburgh during his youth, adopted his father’s patronymic as a British-style surname. (Otherwise he would have been Magnus Sigursteinsson, son of Sigurstein Magnusson.) I’d always wondered why his daughter Sally wasn’t called Magnusdottir. ---
**Author:** ![sonus32](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@sonus32](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sonus32)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sex-changes-in-iceland/376687/14 "2006-10-17T16:56:09Z")
[QUOTE=ultrafilter] I’d actually been meaning to ask this for a while, and I’m glad I saw this thread. Here’s the deal with Icelandic sex changes that I’m curious about. Magnus Svensson has a son, Paul, who is named Paul Magnusson. Paul grows up, is transsexual, has a sex change, and changes her name to Helga. Does she leave her last name as Magnusson, or does she change it to Magnusdottir? [/QUOTE] Exactly – this is what I’m wondering. If what elfbabe wrote is true, I guess the name must change to Magnusdottir, since you’re changing from “Paul who is the son of Magnus” to “Helga who is the daughter of Magnus.”