Fólkanøvn í Føroyum 1801

Abstract

In the first census taken on the Faroe Islands 1769 personal names were not included. The parish registers can be traced back to the seventeenthcentury in Eysturoy, to the eighteenth century in Suðuroy, Sandoy, Vágum, Suðurstreymoy and Norðoyum, but only back to 1817 in Norðstreymoy. Therefore the 1801-census-papers give the first opportunity to count the names of all persons on the Faroes and to trace their extraction. The result of this investigation shows that 9 out of 10 Faroese at that time bore names from the Bible or of a saint. Old Nordic names were declining but Iater in the nineteenth century when the Faroese recovered their national consciousness there was a revival of Nordic names.