[ANSTHRLD] RE: Norse patronymic for son of Andreas

[C. L. Ward]

Magnus asked:
>How do you form the Norse patronymic for son of Andreas?
>Is it one s or two?

The only rule is that you never get three <s> in a row (so you'd never have
<-ssson>).  For instance the nominative form <Vi/gfu/ss> becomes
<Vi/gfu/sson>.

Hmm.  Geirr Bassi has the Old Norse form of the name as <Andreas> but when I
look at the Icelandic version of the Gospel of St. John,
(http://www.snerpa.is/net/biblia/johann.htm), 1:40 shows <Andre/s> (where
the e-slash is meant to represent an e with an acute accent).  Andreas, of
course, is Andrew, brother of Simon Peter.

St. Gabriel says in report #1736
(http://www.panix.com/~gabriel/public-bin/showfinal.cgi?1736+0), note 2:

"<Andreas> appears in Sweden in the late 12th century, but it was probably
only used by clerics at that point.  It did not become a common name until
the 14th century.  _Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn_ (Uppsala:
Almqvist & Wiksell, 1974), h.1."

Looking at "Sveriges Medeltida Personnamn", I find:

1310 Andresson
1375 Andrisson
1419 Andersson
1420 Andresson
1420 Andersson
1457 Andhersszon
1442 Anderss%n (where I'm using the percent symbol for o-slash)

To double-check in Old West Norse (i.e., Norway and Iceland), I found that
in "Magnúss saga blinda og Haralds gilla" (part of Snorri Sturluson's
Heimskringla, written about 1220 or so), Chapter 9 has <Ingibjörg dóttr
Andréss prests Brúnssonar> (Ingibjorg, daughter of Andreas Brunsson the
priest).  Here the genitive form is shown as <Andre/ss>, which would give
you a patronymic of <Andre/sson>.

Doggone, but I wish Geirr Bassi showed some detail on exactly where he found
a given name.  I find myself wondering if he picked up a Latin form
<Andreas>, and whether the Old Norse form isn't properly <Andre/s>.

::GUNNVOR::

Who should know by now that name research is never tidy! Bits and pieces of
information run off in all directions...