Norse names at turn of Century,

[Mark Hoenig]

My grandfathers name was Ragnar, and it is my middle name, too.  My cousins told me it is an old fashioned name in Sweden.  In my family, and in in looking at the names in the church records, Norse names such as Ragnar, Hjalmar, Einar, etc seemed to have been in fashion from about 1880-1920, but before that, it seems to have been all Ole, Per, Johan, etc - more biblical names.  (Though I know Olaf was also a Viking name).   Was there a revival of interest in Viking times, nationalism, or mythology that triggered this fashion?  
 
(My Grandfather used to tell me we were decended from Ragnar Lodbrok, but sadly, I have found nothing to colaborate this fact. ;-) )

[Christina Backman]

The end of the nineteenth century saw some very unusual names turn up again. This also applied to foreign names ie Tamerlane and Hannibal!

[Susanne Åkerfeldt]

You're right, Mark, about a revival of interest in the glorious past of Swedish history in the end of the 1800's. Sweden had been a great power in Europe during the 30 year war in the 1600's and was still fairly powerful during the 1700's. Then, after the Napoleon wars, the size of Sweden had shrunk to more or less the size of our country of today (with the exclusion of Norway, which was a part of Sweden from around 1810 until 1905). This made many Swedes intrested in looking back into history and many myths, which later has proved to have little of thruth, become widespread. Viking societies were popular, as well as folk dance socities. A special Swedish folk costume in the colors of blue and yellow was designed. I am sure you can read more about this era in any good history book, describing those times. One man on my husband's side was named Engelbrekt, which was a farmer who stood up against brutality and almost managed to throw the king from the throne during the Middle Ages.  
 
Also, ordinary people started to feel more free to name their children unusual names, as news from abroad were spread more easily thru newspapers etc. Further, many parents now chose to name their children several first names, not just one or two which had been previous practice.  
 
Well, this was just a little in brief; there is much to be said on this subject. Maybe someone else can direct you directly to a book of interest?
 
Best regards, Susanne