Variation in name phrases and social structures in late Middle Age Stockholm

This paper presents a survey of name phrases in the council records of the city of Stockhom for the years 1483–1492. By the term name phrase, I mean a noun phrase that designates an individual, with a personal name as its head.

The subject of this paper is connections between name phrases and the social structure of the city. The primary function of name phrases is to identify individuals, but important secondary functions are conveying attitudes and categorizing people; hence, name phrases can shed light on contemporary society. An overview is given in table 1. The differences between men and women are, not surprisingly, striking. Women are mentioned to a far lesser extent than men, and when mentioned, their name phrases tend to lack the typical attributes of men´s: patronymics, bynames/surnames and occupational terms. Instead, a woman is often related to another person, in most cases a man, particularly her husband, often specified by an andronymic, e.g. Mærta Albrikts – ' Mærta, Albrikt´s (wife)'.

Social groups studied are priests, friars and nuns, nobles, artisans, bearers, merchants and servants. I propose the view that mentality plays an important role in choosing how to refer to individuals, and that name phrases to some extent correspond more closely to views of society than to social structures.