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Skriv ut sidan - Äldre inlägg (arkiv) till 2004-03-05
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Titel: Äldre inlägg (arkiv) till 2004-03-05
Skrivet av: Anders Andersson skrivet 2004-03-01, 23:42
The number of people sharing the same patronymics (derived from a small set of common male first names) was probably the primary reason to adopt a more unique last name, especially when moving to a new place where nobody knew your father anyway (not only when emigrating abroad, but also when moving to the expanding towns in Sweden to find work). Thus your first explanation above is probably fairly correct.
While I can imagine the name Murpha-Hult being derived from some actual Swedish placename, I can't identify it (I thought it could be Mörbyhult, but such a place doesn't seem to exist). The ending -hult is however very common in southern Sweden, meaning approximately grove. The fact that it's a common name ending makes me believe it's not the origin of your family name; it would be like picking the -ton element out of Washington or Southampton and turn it into Tonson.
If your ancestors did indeed use the spelling Hullquist from the beginning, I would have to give some credit to the Swedes-passing-through-Hull theory, as the name Hullquist (or Hullqvist) is extremely rare in Sweden, almost nonexistant (there are four individuals with that name in the Swedish 1890 census, none of them in Kalmar county). I still find it more likely that it's a spelling change from Hult- or Hall- (perhaps to make the name easier to pronounce).
Since you now have a likely birth parish for Johan Fredrik, I suggest deferring the speculation on the origin of his name until someone has looked him up in the Swedish records right before his emigration.