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Paper short abstract:

Laws and traditional values have shaped men's naming in Norway for 100 years, giving men responsibility for naming the nuclear family. During the same period, ideas of self and demands of gender equality have grown, making men accountable also as individuals, husbands and as fathers of daughters.

Paper long abstract:

In the first Norwegian name law (1923), the practice of men keeping their last names, women taking their husband's last name and children getting the name of their father, became law. The ideal of the nuclear family carrying the man's last name that grew forward in the 1800s among the Norwegian upper classes, now became the rule for everyone. Names had previously described the name of the father (i.e. Larsen, Nilsen, Størksen) and the name of the homestead (i.e. Dahl, Grønstad, Førre), hence changed accordingly. Now, the names should describe the male bloodline. Throughout the revisions of the name law in the 1940-1970s, suggestions to make it easier to use women's names were met with arguments of traditional values and order. In 1980, however, the name law became gender equal, while the practices have not. Norwegian men keep their birth names (over 90 %) to a greater extent than Norwegian women (about 50%). In this paper, I will discuss how men who have kept and men who have changed their last names in marriage with women, understand responsibility and naming. In addition to traditional values, the men mention responsibility towards oneself and continuity of naming identity as well as gender equality in their naming strategies. This suggest that there are multiple sets of values connected to naming and gender, giving men different, and sometimes conflicting norms that they are held accountable against.