Hansen misspelled Hanson before the band was popular? Also other Scandinavian names?

Question

Before the band Hanson became popular in 1997, did people misspell "Hansen" as "Hanson"?

Or do I have to deal with people misspelling my name everyday thanks only to that band?

What about other Norwegian/Scandinavian names? Are they commonly misspelled with an "o" instead of an "e"? (Andersen, Christensen, Larsen, Sorensen, Eriksen, Johansen, etc.) Did this change with time?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The 'son endings tend to be English & the 'sen endings tend to be of Danish / Norwegian origin

Answer 2

Sen means son in swedish names and norweigion names. Some families that came to America, Americanized their names and changed it to son. You'll notice with even when a daughter is born her name was different, such as Andersdatter, Olesdatter. Datter meaning daughter. There are also farm names as well. You should read up on how the Swedish and Norwegions used surnames.

Answer 3

The rule about Scandinavian names is that the suffix is "sen" in Denmark and Norway, and "son" elsewhere.  After they came to American the tendency has been toward "son", even if it was something else in Europe.

That's probably because of how "sen" is pronounced in Denmark and Norway, but I'm just guessing about that.

(I do lots of Danish and Norwegian genealogy for other people and Danish genealogy for my own family.)

Answer 4

Prior to the early 1900s, you will find that ANY name is going to have alternate spellings in various records.  Many persons were illiterate, and they would not have known if their spelling was right or wrong (or the clerk/ minister/etc, who entered it in the records).  For genealogical purposes.. it becomes very minor of a point, as long as you show that Jan Hansen was actually the son of Lars Hanson.  But I won't get into the Scandinavian practices.

Today, our name spellings are much more fixed.. you'll just have to keep correcting people. Be grateful your name is not Fullingim (which originally was Fillingham).

Answer 5

Babe Zaharias who was raised and is buried in my home town once explained in an interview that her maiden name was Didricksen and she said it was Norwegian. She said all of her medal were in the name Didrickson and that is Swedish.  The name was misspelled by those awarding medal at first and it really wasn't a big deal.  There is a museum on Interstate 10 when you drive into Beaumont, Texas from Louisiana on the right side of the highway. There they have her name spelled as Didrickson but where she is buried they have her name spelled Didricksen.  All of her famiy used Didricksen.  So the sen, the way she explained it is Norwegian and the son is Swedish.