Danish Names
Family names
The 10 most common family names in 1801/1803 were:
- Jensen (Jenssen)
- Nielsen (Nilsen)
- Pedersen (Petersen, Pettersen)
- Hansen (Hanssen)
- Christensen (Kristensen, Chrestensen)
- Andersen (Anderssen)
- Larsen (Larssen)
- Sørensen (Sörensen)
- Rasmussen (Rasmusen)
- Jørgensen
Most names can be spelled in different ways, see the examples in ( ).
The Top-10 was exactly the same in 2008.
Today’s Top-10 has the same names but the order is a little different; most importantly, Nielsen now the most common family name.
In total, there are around 147,000 different family names in Denmark of which 12,000 are patronymic family names (-sen).
More than half the Danish population has a patronymic family name.
Read about the rules of family names here.
Get a free consultation by My Danish Roots today!
Boy names
The 10 most common boy names in 1801/1803 were :
- Peder (Peter, Petter)
- Hans (Hanss)
- Jens (Jenss)
- Niels (Nils, Njels, Nels)
- Christen (Kristen, Kresten, Cresten)
- Anders (Anners)
- Rasmus (Rassmus, Rasmuss)
- Søren (Sören, Sørren)
- Lars
- Christian (Cristian, Kristian)
Variations of the names in ( ).
Half of the old names are still on today’s Top-10 boy names (number of people with the name):
- Peter
- Jens
- Michael
- Lars
- Thomas
- Henrik
- Søren
- Christian
- Jan
- Martin
But none of the old names is on Top-10 for boys born in 2018:
- William
- Noah
- Oscar
- Lucas
- Victor
- Malthe
- Oliver
- Alfred
- Carl
- Valdemar
Get a free consultation by My Danish Roots today!