naming is a big deal over here, and it seems to me, though i have not researched this, that people can pretty much choose whether and how they use the father’s name or the mother’s name or both as their child’s last name, in what order and whether hyphenated, with period, or including the word “and” or not (a son of John & Anna could be: Johnsson OR Annasson OR Annass. Johnsson OR Johnss. Annasson OR Johns-and Annasson /Annas-and Johnsson … ), etc, and there are other things to choose from — as long as it doesn’t exceed a certain length which the bureacrats have decided on is sufficient:) i had to add a period to my lengthy name (instead of using the full word, ie johnsdaughter, it’s just johnsd.) bc the national naming office place deemed all my names combined too long for their data base! funky.

Carrie i think crg was referring to icelandic women, not all women generally. it sounds like its a tradition to give children only father’s names unless for those reasons she mentioned in her post. It does not apply to u.s. women

I think it’s interesting that an Icelandic nuclear family could have four different names. The mother and father would have different last names, of course, and then the son could have a patronymic and the daughter could have a matronymic.

Children who do have a father in their life sometimes get their mother’s last name. My husband and I gave our children my last name, with his as a second middle name. Why is it that women carry the children and do most of the childcare but it’s considered “feminist” for their last name to even appear in the middle spot, much less as a surname?

When I first read this article, I thought Björk’s daughter had Bjarkardóttir as a surname. That would have been cool.

crg you have it right, but I just want to add that not only “feminists” give their children their name. Children who don’t have their father in their life often get their mothers name as last name.

Anyway she is such a cute girl.

Thank you Nikka and crg, I was wondering the same exact thing and appreciate the info! I love Bjork and I’ve always wondered what Isadora looks like, so I was thrilled to see this picture.

Thanks crg – that was really interesting and informative.

Wow, what a beautiful little girl! And CRG, that was fantastic of you to explain that . I can’t believe Bjork’s son is that old! I remember when Bjork has a tussle with a journalist at the airport and he looked so tiny, that only feels a few years ago!

Icelandic names decline just like other words- kind of like in Latin. So, if you are just calling Bjork by name, she would be Bjork, but if you were saying Bjork’s daughter, you would use the genative form to show possession and say Bjarkar dottir, hence her daughter’s middle name. Icelandic children are usually given their last names by taking their father’s name and adding dottir or son onto the end of it after changing it to the genative form to show posession. i.e., Aegir’s son would be Aegisson. Some Icelandic women considered “feminists” are giving their children their name as their middle names, for example, a name could be Isadora Bjarkardottir Gunnarsdottir if Isadora’s dad’s name was Gunnar, so maybe Bjork just wanted to give her daughter a little piece of an Icelandic name, since her dad is not Icelandic. Bjarkardottir is her middle name, I believe. Her last name is Barney. I hope that makes sense! I’m pretty sure I have it right!

What a gorgeous little girl I love her name!