Diferent surnames in a family

[Mary Nelson Keithahn]

In one generation of a family line a relative in Sweden sent me, there are eight children. The father's name was Anders Olsson so the first seven children used either Andersson or Andersdotter as a surname.  The 8th child, a male, adds Lind after Andersson.  All the children were born between 1840 and 1857.  Can someone please tell me why the last boy added a new surname?  Thank you.

[Ingela Martenius]

Before 1901 anyone could call himself/herself anything (except for a noble name). You just told the vicar what you wanted to be called and that's it - and you could change your name any number of times.
A Swede's true identity was his/her patronymic (e.g. Andersson/Andersdotter), the rest was just decoration. Even today Swedes - except for the tiny fraction of the population that makes up the nobility, some old clergy and old smithing families - have no particular feeling for their last name; it's one of the most popular pastimes here, to change your family name (last year more people than ever before changed).
 
The reason the last boy added Lind (which means linden tree/lime tree) was either that he served as a soldier (all soldiers were given surnames by their regiments), that he moved into town as something other than a servant or factory worker (e.g. to work in a shop or become a craftsman) or that he somehow got himself a bit of an education which enabled him to climb a step or two on the social ladder. Lind was certainly a soldier name, but not exclusively so (Lind is by no means an exclusive name, 15454 people have it for their family name in Sweden today).
As to why he chose Lind in particular - well, if the reason was that he joined the armed forces he didn't have much of a choice (it was mostly the regiment's decision). If he chose it himself, he probably just liked the sound or there was a linden tree back home or something like that.
 
Read more about Swedish naming practices:
 Names
 
Ingela

[Ingela Martenius]

PS. There was nothing strange in one member of the family changing names and not the rest. I've seen extreme cases where out of four brothers three changed into three separate names (yes, each one took a different name) and the fourth retained his patronymic name.