At 4:35:32 AM on Friday, June 3, 2011, NINA NILSON wrote:

> Hello, I am trying to find research materials or help of
> any kind to translate my Swedish surname, (Nilsson) to Old
> Swedish or even a Runic translation.

> My family immigrated from Southwest Sweden so I would like
> to find out the variation used there from the 7th to 11th
> centuries.

<Nilsson> is a patronymic meaning 'son of Nils'. <Nils>,
<Niels>, <Nels>, etc. are later forms of <Nikolas>, the
Scandinavian borrowing of Latin <Nic(h)olaus>, which is from
Greek <Nikólaos>. They first appear in Denmark in the
middle of the 14th century; from there they entered Norway,
where they start to appear around 1400 and grow in frequency
during the 15th century. The SMP (Sveriges medeltida
personnamn) hasn't yet reached N, so I have no specific
dates for the appearance of the short forms in Swedish
records, but it's a pretty safe bet that the earliest
examples are from 1400 give or take a few decades.

The earliest Danish appearances of the name <Nicolaus> noted
in Danmarks Gamle Personnavne are from the early 12th
century. An illegitimate son of Svend Estridsen who was
born around 1065 bore the name and was king 1104 to 1134;
nowadays he's usually called <Niels> or <Nils>, but this
appears to be an anachronism.

In short, the name seems to have entered Scandinavia in the
11th century in forms like <Nikolás> (and of course
documentary Latin <Nic(h)olaus>); <Niklas> and the like
appear in Denmark in the earlier 13th century; and the
monosyllabic forms don't appear anywhere until the 14th
century.

Brian