Christiansen or Kristiansen??

[Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer]

My great-grandfather Peder Christiansen was baptized in Rygge on June 19, 1825. In the 1865 census, he is registered with his wife and children in Sarpsborg. In the 1875 and 1885 censuses, he registers with a change in his surname, appearing as Peder Kristiansen, just as his son, baptized Christian Pedersen, registers as Kristian Pedersen ... Why could this change have happened? Was there a nationalist movement at that time? ... On his death record, he also appears with the surname Kristiansen

[Inger Eik]

There was a 'modernization', or ' Norwegianisation' of writing names (people, place names etc, also other words) towards the end of the century. As an example, during the 1800 Norway's capital, now Oslo, had the name of Christiania. From 1.1.1900 the spelling was Kristiania (and it became Oslo by 1.1.1925).

And yes, there was indeed a nationalist movement at that time.

Endret Februar 15, 2018 av Inger Eik

[Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer]

 

Thanks, I thought it was a nationalist change, because Christian with CH, is the way they write the Danish or German name, however, the change was not general, not everyone modified their surname

[Kristian Hunskaar (privat)]

41 minutter siden, Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer skrev:

Thanks, I thought it was a nationalist change, because Christian with CH, is the way they write the Danish or German name, however, the change was not general, not everyone modified their surname

 

Diversity in spelling of names was very common right until the 20th century. It's not only because of a nationalist movement. I would say the main reason is that there was no fixed way to write names, and most information exchange was done orally. Thus, the priest would write the name the way he heard it and in the way he found it best to write.

[Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer]

I completely agree,  I have seen many differences in the writing of certain names like Niels (Nils) or Tosten (Thosten, Torsten), however in this case, there was an intentional change in the writing, both in the surname Kristiansen, as in the name of his son (Kristian)

[Kristian Hunskaar (privat)]

1 time siden, Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer skrev:

I completely agree,  I have seen many differences in the writing of certain names like Niels (Nils) or Tosten (Thosten, Torsten), however in this case, there was an intentional change in the writing, both in the surname Kristiansen, as in the name of his son (Kristian)

 

I don't know if it was an intentional change. I guess they had no idea whether the priest had written Christian or Kristian when they were baptised, so perhaps in their mind, the spelling had always been Kristian (thus no change). Besides, I'm actually not sure about who filled in the census forms in 1875 and 1885; it might have been a person going from house to house to gather information, and then this person chose to write Christian or Kristian.

Endret Februar 15, 2018 av Kristian Hunskaar (privat)

[Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer]

 

can be, the truth is that from 1875, in all records, father and son listed with the last name and name written with K, an change before, including the 1865 census, figure with Ch

[Harald Søren Storaker]

22 timer siden, Gustavo Pedersen Mollenhauer skrev:

 

can be, the truth is that from 1875, in all records, father and son listed with the last name and name written with K, an change before, including the 1865 census, figure with Ch

Spelling varied, also later on. "The man with the pen" decided how to spell a name, not the owner of the name. In the censuses you can find an awful lot of strange spellings of person names and place names. I have found Sverige (Sweden) spelled in 20 different ways in the censuses. You often find the same name spelled in different ways in the same document.