Sandefjord in 1762: Their Names

The 217 souls in Sandefjord in 1762 shared 104 unique given names (depending a bit on how one counts: is Elen and Elen Maria 1, 2 or 3 names?). They carried 89 second/third names, many of them patronymics, some seemingly fixed family names, yet others related to where they have come from.

These “second” names that are not patronymics are 24 in number:

Ask	Langaard	Schriber
Bøckman	Langbechs	Steen
Kiemes	Laurvig	Thue
Fosberg	Lerk	Tideman Mørk
Gresberg	Mørk	Tollid
Hellevad	Neerup	Wærner
Holk	Sylnus	Weyer
Hvid	Schølert	Wright

It is difficult to draw any conclusions from such a small and un-investigated sample, but some of the names are, one can speculate, not of a local origin, and probably not from Norway – at least not originally. 

Bøckman, Holk, Hvid, Langbechs, Lerk, Sylnus, Schølert, Schriber, Tideman Mørk, Wærner, Weyer and  Wright belong in this category and may represent a set of people associated with government functions, trade, or “intellectual” pursuits – a teacher, for example. But speculation it remains.

Among the unique given names, there are many “traditional” names in the sense of being common in the population over long periods (Anne, Berthe, Hans, Inger, Marthe, Paul or Søren, for example), while others appear less usual and more interesting: Abelone, Billo, Magnelle, Magnolea, Nicolaida and Zyverine are examples (although and admittedly, the last one is a spelling variation.

Among girls and women, the most popular given name was Maren (15) followed by Anne (10) and Karen (9). Anders (9) was the most common man’s name, followed by Ole (7) and Hans (5).

31 men’s names and 33 women’s names were carried by a single person – if unique combinations of names, and spelling variations are taken into account.

Without those qualifications, there are 29 unique men’s names and 31 women’s carried by a single person – altogether 60 individuals, or nearly a third of the population.

Not all migrants are new kids on the block!

Having come to live in Sandefjord as a kid, via Sweden and Japan, I have always been seen as an immigrant,
someone slightly alien; everybody was frightfully polite about it, but it was made quite clear I was not local like
everybody else. Hence my sense of accomplishment when I found the following family in the 1762 tax
assessment (Ekstraskatt 1762: Larvik m/Langest. og Sandefj.; see www.digitalarkivet.no)


1292 45 Poul Conrad Bøckman Mand betaler for de fattige
1293 45 Maren Olsdatter Hustrue betaler for de fattige
1294 45 Abraham Bøckman Børn
1295 45 Anne Bøckman Børn
1296 45 Hana Mathiesdatter Pige
1297 45 Maren Olsdatter Andre


My enthusiasm was triggered by the surname, and a bit of elementary investigation showed that Poul Conrad
was the brother of one of my ancestors - my 8G Grandfather, no less.


Me, the new arrival, had relatives living in Sandefjord long before most of my friends!


Revenge is sweet, but the people of the village of Sandefjord are good, and I shall seek their friendship.

Sandefjord 1762: Some Statistical Trivia

The database shown at “Digitalarkivet” under the heading “Ekstraskatt 1762: Larvik m/Langest. og Sandefj[1].” contains 217 individuals in a total of 70 households of varying size.

Most of the inhabitants were women or, to be precise, female - 131 – and the number of male persons was only 86; quite unbalanced, in other words.

Of the 70 households 18, or 26%, were headed by women, the other 74% by men. The proportion of the population in female headed households was 23.9%; that of male headed households 76 %: the latter were only about 10% larger, on average, in terms of numbers of members.

Although one tends to believe that households, in the past, were rather large, the ones found in this sample are not particularly so:

Number of Household Members	Number of Households
1	4
2	21
3	25
4	9
5	6
6	5

In other words, nearly two thirds of the households contained 2 or three people; only 15 % contain 5 or six people. 74% of the population lived in households with 2-4 members: not exactly one’s idea of a traditional, extended family!

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[1] Compiled by Kristian Hunskaar; see http://www.digitalarkivet.no/cgi-win/webcens.exe?slag=visbase&filnamn=xtr62lar&metanr=2297