Full Citation
Title: Scandinavian Influences on Anthroponyms and Toponyms in Utah
Citation Type: Book, Section
Publication Year: 2023
ISBN:
ISSN:
DOI: 10.4324/9781003325000/PERSPECTIVES-LATTER-DAY-SAINT-NAMES-NAMING-DALLIN-OAKS-PAUL-BALTES-KENT-MINSON
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Abstract: In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, official policy and doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encouraged the “gathering of the faithful.” In fact, Brigham Young declared in 1860 that emigration “upon the first feasible opportunity directly follows obedience to the first principles of the Gospel we have embraced.”1 As a result, thousands of converts to the Church gathered to “Zion” in Utah. During the 19th century, more immigrants came to Utah from Denmark than any other country except Great Britain.2 Not far behind the Danes were the Swedes and a good number of Norwegians. Together, by 1880, these Scandinavian immigrants made up nearly 9% of the young Utah Territory’s total population.3 In some counties, the foreign-born Scandinavians constituted up to nearly a quarter of the population, and in a few communities they were the major-ity.4 This influx of people who came from a foreign culture and spoke a language other than English affected Utah in many ways. This chapter will focus on the influence they had on the onomastics of Utah.In light of the demographic facts mentioned above (and explained in greater detail below), one might expect a strong Scandinavian influence on both personal names and place names in Utah. Nevertheless, while there was certainly some influence, it seems to have been disproportionately small, and thus it is often neglected, forgotten, and unstudied by those interested in Western American and Latter-day Saint naming patterns. For instance, in the chapter on “Proper Names in America” in his monumental work The American Language, H. L. Mencken writes of Scandinavian names elsewhere in America (e.g., Minnesota) but makes no mention of any Scandinavian onomastic influence in Utah.5 Likewise, modern investigators of personal names in Utah have noted the potential influence of French (“The quintessential Utah name often has a French-sounding prefix such as Le-, La-, Ne- or- Va-”6) and religious scriptures (e.g., Book of Mormon names like “Mahonri or Nephi or Moroni”7) on Utah LDS given names. Mansfield even draws parallels between Latter-day Saint and African-American naming patterns.8Nevertheless, these authors make no mention of any Scandinavian influence on anthroponyms in Utah. Regarding Utah toponyms, the situation is similar. The introduction to the 450-page Utah Place Names mentions the influence of the native Shoshone, Ute, Paiute, Goshute, and Navajo Indians; the Spanish explorers; and “the mountain men, Mormons, and military”9 on toponyms in Utah, but it fails to make any reference to the Scandinavians and their influence.
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Authors: Henrichsen, Lynn; Bailey, George; Wright, Timothy; Huckaby, Jacob
Editors: Oaks, Dallin; Baltes, Paul; Minson, Kent
Pages: 42-69
Volume Title: Perspectives on Latter-day Saint Names and Naming
Publisher: Routledge
Publisher Location: London
Volume:
Edition: 1
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Migration and Immigration, Population Mobility and Spatial Demography, Race and Ethnicity
Countries: