# Icelandic: plural of a name



## Gavril

Sæl,

Is it possible to use the plural form of a name in Icelandic when the context calls for it?

For ex.,

A: _Annars rakst ég í gær á Auðbjörg._
B: _Kynnumst við tveim Auðbjörgum – hvora rakst þú á?_

Or, would you have to use a different expression in this context? (E.g., _Kynnumst við tveim konum sem heita “Auðbjörg” – hvora rakst þú á?_)

Takk


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## Merkurius

Hi Gavril!

To answer it shortly: No, you do not put it in plural.
Long answer: In fact most names should not conjugate in plural f.x. „sing. Guðrún, Guðrúnu, Guðrúnu, Guðrúnar and plural. Guðrúnir, Guðrúnir, Guðrúnum, Guðrúna.“


In your example one could say „A: Annars rakst ég í gær á Auðbjörg*u*“ And reply „Við þekkjum tvær stelpur sem heita Auðbjörg - Hvora þeirra rakstu á?“

ATTENTION!
When Icelanders are talking, and perhaps it's because they really don't mind, they tend to say the name in plural if it *sounds* right, for example: „Ég þekki tvo Kidda/tvær Kolbrúnur...etc“ But someone like myself would correct them immediately!!


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## Gavril

Merkurius said:


> Hi Gavril!
> 
> To answer it shortly: No, you do not put it in plural.
> Long answer: In fact most names should not conjugate in plural



Are there any names that do have plural forms? (I'm just curious because you said "most names" above -- but maybe I misunderstood.)


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## Merkurius

My source is my Icelandic teacher, whom I consider very reliable. 
According to her you should *never* conjugate names of people in plural. 
As you can see I put a reason in my previous answer saying ''doubt.'' I cannot find any other source telling me that it is absolutely forbidden (nor allowed) to conjugate the names in plural.
However, saying for example: _Ég þekki tvær Auðbjörgur_ would sound completely wrong to me!
Like I said there are some names that sound correct in plural, but they aren't! 
I hope more Icelanders will agree with me when I say: ''You should never conjugate the name of people in plural.''
*Extra:*
If you try this conjugator, which is very reliable, you can see that it never gives you the plural form of people's names.
Try to put in there for example Gunnar, Jón, Sigurður, Guðrún, Sigríður...


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## Gavril

Merkurius said:


> My source is my Icelandic teacher, whom I consider very reliable.
> According to her you should *never* conjugate names of people in plural.
> As you can see I put a reason in my previous answer saying ''doubt.'' I cannot find any other source telling me that it is absolutely forbidden (nor allowed) to conjugate the names in plural.
> However, saying for example: _Ég þekki tvær Auðbjörgur_ would sound completely wrong to me!



Interesting: I would have guessed that the plural would be "Auðbjargir", given how the noun _björg _is declined. As far as you can tell, do the plural forms of names used in speech (even if these forms are not correct Icelandic) usually agree with the plural form of the corresponding noun? E.g., would you normally hear a form like _Unnsteinar_ as the plural of _Unnsteinn_, or _Daggir_ as the plural of _Dögg_, and so on?



> Like I said there are some names that sound correct in plural, but they aren't!
> I hope more Icelanders will agree with me when I say: ''You should never conjugate the name of people in plural.''
> *Extra:*
> If you try this conjugator, which is very reliable, you can see that it never gives you the plural form of people's names.
> Try to put in there for example Gunnar, Jón, Sigurður, Guðrún, Sigríður...



Yes, I noticed that the conjugator didn't give plural forms for any names that I tried. I just wasn't sure if this was because there was an explicit rule against plural names (which it looks like there is), or because plural names were relatively rare.


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## Merkurius

Gavril said:


> Interesting: I would have guessed that the plural would be "Auðbjargir", given how the noun _björg _is declined. As far as you can tell, do the plural forms of names used in speech (even if these forms are not correct Icelandic) usually agree with the plural form of the corresponding noun? E.g., would you normally hear a form like _Unnsteinar_ as the plural of _Unnsteinn_, or _Daggir_ as the plural of _Dögg_, and so on?


If you were to conjugate the noun in plural then yes, they would have to agree with the plural form of the corresponding noun, like ''Auðbjargir''. But like your examples *Unnsteinar* no never!! You would never say that in plural, nor would you say *Daggir*. It simply doesn't sound right. There are some that ''sound'' right but aren't for example in my previous example Kolbrún - Kolbrúnur, Guðrún - Guðrúnur (note not Guðrúnir, like in the word rún(sing) -> rúnir (pl.). Nicknames can also ''sound'' correct Goggi (from Georg) -> Goggar, Siggi (Sigurður)-> Siggar, Bjöggi (Björgvin) -> Bjöggar, Nonni (Jón) -> Nonnar... etc... but remember... THEY ARE NOT CORRECT!!


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## mosletha

What about the surname of two brothers/sisters? I was reading some Icelandic articles on Wikipedia about Snorri Sturluson, or rather one of his brothers, Sighvatr, and came over this sentence: "Hann var sonur Sturlu Þórðarsonar (Hvamm-Sturlu) og Guðnýjar Böðvarsdóttur konu hans og *albróðir þeirra Þórðar og Snorra Sturlusona*."

If this is correct Icelandic, am I correct in deducing the following phrases would also be correct: 

*þeir Þórður og Snorri Sturlusynir?
**um þá Þórð og Snorra Sturlusyni?
**frá þeim Þórði og Snorra Sturlusonum?
**til þeirra Þórðar og Snorra Sturlusona?*

The hypothetical equivalent of this in Norwegian, which would be something like for example "Leif og Erlend Torssøner", seems very curious to me...


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## Merkurius

Yes. That is allowed. You can say if two or more people have the same father (or mother sometimes - *see note*) yyysynir or -dætur.
For example the sisters Jóna and Gunna have a father named Jón, thus you can say *Jóna og Gunna Jónsdætur.*

Your conjugation is correct. Same would go for daughter, i.e. dætur, dætur, dætrum, dætra.

*Note: Sometimes people like to be referred to their mother instead of their father. So f.x. you can me named Snorri Guðnýjarson.*


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## mosletha

I see! Thank you for confirming.


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## KarenRei

Hmm... vinkona mín (sem er kennari) skrifaði:

"Þegar sá sem æðir um og kaupir og kaupir lendir í greiðsluvanda eins og *Björgólfarnir* og Bónusarnir...."

Er þetta ekki rétt, að nota fleirtölu nafnsins sem líkingu?


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## Merkurius

> "Þegar sá sem æðir um og kaupir og kaupir lendir í greiðsluvanda eins og *Björgólfarnir* og Bónusarnir...."



Fyrir mér er þetta jafn rangt og hvað annað. Myndi halda að þarna væri hún að grínast og þetta *er mikið notað óformlegu talmáli*. En almennt er þetta ekki leyfilegt.
_(English (for those who are not sure about what I said): This is wrong to me as anything else. For me this a joke sentence (that is said jokingly). *Many people use this when talking*, f.ex. when joking. Usually this is not allowed._


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