--- "llama_nom" wrote:

> Incidentally, was Olga used in early times? I though this was

originally a Slavic adaptation of the Old Norse name Helga

Right you are. An ON/OI woman can hardly have been named Olga
(nor her husband Vlad, for that matter!).

> Also, I'm curious about matronymics. It's the individual's choice

in modern Iceland, isn't it?

Yes.

>I read somewhere that the practice has become more common in
>recent years.

Yes, because the naming-laws were changed, and we can now use
both a patronymic or a matronymic, or both in combination. A
number of people have used this opportunity to "honour" their
mothers as well as their fathers. My legal name used to be
Eysteinn Björnsson, but is now Eysteinn Sigrúnar Björnsson,
"Eysteinn Sigrún's and Björn's son". And as "Sigrúnar" can be
a male name in the nominative as well as a female name in the
genitive, I gain a new name as well as a matronymic. And as you
know "sigrúnar" is also a plural, as in Sigurdrífumál 6.

> Might it also have been used if the mother happened to be much

better

> known or more prominent in society than the father for some reason?

Do you know of an example? I can't recall any, but it is possible.
However, it could be conceived as a slight to the father to ignore
him in this manner, so it seems rather doubtful if he were alive
and well, and the mother's husband.

For some reason POETS seem to carry matronymics more frequently
than other classes of men in the OI world. And only rarely do we
know anything of their actual mothers, so it is hardly by reason
of their prominence. Barði guðmundsson used yo have some theories
about this, but I don't think they are accepted by anyone these
days.

E.