Meaning of a Swedish name

Question

My Great granduncle was born Johannes Petersson.  After immigrating to the United States in 1872, he became known as John Ekblaw.  Does anyone know the significance of that name?  Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hello Cindy,

I am unable to see your single source on each profile, because they are behind a paywall. Are you sure he did not use that family name in Sweden?

I descend from a Peter Persson also (my 4th great grandfather). His first son and my 3rd great grandfather, Per August Persson, took Bäcklund as a family name after he became a welder. He took the name to America and never used Persson in America.

You need more research to see if he ever did use the name in Sweden. If he did, he just chose to use Ekbaw maybe because of his line of work or where he lived.

Do you need help with your Swedish research? For Swedish records, you can use RiksArkivet or even FamilySearch (for some parishes) for free records. I will take a quick look to see if I can find anything.

Missy 

Comments

Lägernäs Ostragård:

Askeryd, A I/19 (1839-1845), bildid: C0019679_00104, page 96  https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0019679_00104

Askeryd, A I/21 (1846-1850), bildid: C0019681_00100, page 93 https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0019681_00100

Askeryd, A I/23 (1851-1857), bildid: C0019683_00095, page 86 https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0019683_00095

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They moved to Eksjö in 1856: Askeryd, B I/3 (1850-1861), bildid: C0019697_00038 https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0019697_00038

Unfortunately, there are no moving in records in Eksjö until a couple years later. 

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Their marriage source was on FamilySearch:

"Sweden, Jönköping Church Records, 1581-1935; index 1633-1860", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2WC-PQ8R : 8 August 2017), Johannes Petersson and Carolina Charlotta Petersdotter, 1846.

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Well, it seems he left Sweden using Johannes Petersson:

Name:	Johannes Petersson
Gender:	Man (Male)
Birth Date:	7 aug 1814
Birth Place:	Askeryd, Jönköping
Departure Date:	11 maj 1872 (11 May 1872)
Departure Place:	Eksjö landsförs, Jönköping
Arrival Place:	Nordamerika
Marital status:	Married
Notes:	Travels with family
Original Page:	207
Household Members:	Name Claes Fritiof Johannesson Petersson August Lennart Johannesson Petersson Anders Johannesson Petersson Ida Augusta Lovisa Johannesdotter Petersson Johannes Petersson Carolina Charlotta Petersdotter

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First, I want to apologize if I have overwhelmed you with sources you may already have, but I can get a little obsessed.   If you do need them, you can just copy and paste all the sources onto your profiles.

They lived in Björnkallan: Eksjö landsförsamling, A I/24 (1867-1871), bildid: C0021350_00174, page 164

They moved to Källshult in Eksjö before they moved:

Eksjö landsförsamling, A I/25 (1871-1879), bildid: C0021351_00208, page 207 https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/C0021351_00208

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Thanks for doing the work, Missy!

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Thank you so much to everyone!  I have been out of town for a few days so was not able to reply.

I have not added much to his WikiTree profile as I wanted to make sure these were the same people.

And Missy, I am not overwhelmed at all - just very appreciative.

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Thank you for the offer of research help Missy.  I did buy a two month subscription to ArkivDigital and have figured the basics out on that site.  I know Riksarkivet is free but I have not been able to find what I need.  Is there a tutorial somewhere?

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Cindy, you are welcome! I am happy to help.

What information are you looking for on RiksArkivet (that you are unable to find)?

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I have been able to find Household records and birth records on ArkivDigital but do not know the process on RiksArkivet.

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It is different on RiksArkivet. Here is a WikiTree page that has some great instructions and links regarding RiksArkivet.

Answer 2

Hi, the only translation google comes up with is from Arabic, meaning accept.  I think its more likely a form of Ecte Blau, or real blue.  Someone with actual Swedish may have a better reply.

You haven't listed his wife or children, familysearch has at least 5 files, with the most children in the following:

Sweden, Household Examination Books, 1880-1930

Event Type: Census

Name:         Johannes Petersson Ur.

Event Date: from 1876 to 1880

Event Place: Ödeshög, Östergötland, Sweden

Event Place (Original): Ödeshög, Östergötlands, Sweden

Birth Date: 4 Oct 1814

Birthplace: Säby

Family Number: 1

Volume:         AI 15

Household                 Role   Sex Age Birthplace

Johannes Petersson Ur.         Säby

Christina Nathanaelsdotter Wife Ödeshög

Augusta Josephina         Daughter  Female Strå

Carl Oscar                 Son   Male Ödeshög

Clara Albertina                 Daughter  Female Ödeshög

Comments

Unfortunately, that is not the right family. “His” Johannes Petersson left Eksjö in Jönköping on May 11, 1872.

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LoL!!

Ekblaw sounds like an anglophone distortion of my own family name Ekeblad. Which means Oak Leaf - and was adopted by my great grandfather and two of his brothers in the 1880s by association with their birth village, Eklanda. Before that it was all patronymics in that branch. One can also suspect they nicked the name from the unrelated noble family Ekeblad, which was expired by then. I once made a little study of Ekeblad families - there were about ten different, unrelated branches wo took the name at about that time.

The common folk in Sweden all used patronymics before the 19th century. In the 19th century there was an accelerating free-for-all when people adopted surnames they fancied. There were no name laws at the time - basically the only thing you couldn't do was take the name of a noble family with members still living.

Answer 3

Often questions like this can't really be answered. Someone wanted to have a surname so they chose something they liked. But often there is an element in the name of a place they came from.

In this case it doesn't sound or look like a typical Swedish surname at all. It looks a bit like a misspelling of Ekblad which is a typical Swedish compunt surname with a typical first part "Ek-" and a typical last part "-blad". (Today there are 1390 people in Sweden with that surname, surely not all related.)

So "Ek-" is a typical first part. It's Swedish for "oak", but that really doesn't matter, it's just an element which is common in surnames.

But "-blaw" is very non-Swedish. It could be a way to try to spell the Swedish word "blå" in English. But -blå is not a common element to use in surnames (The word means "blue".) So that would be a really strange name anyway.

Comments

I have had my surname pronounced "ecky-blaw" by Americans, so I'm not surprised by the "blaw" part - but it certainly isn't Swedish.

And I think Missy has established that they did not use the name in Sweden.

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Hm, I think you are right, it was probably meant as a variant of -bla(d). For non-Swedes: the d can/could often be silent in "blad".

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It really comes down to how it was heard and written down initially when entering the English-language sphere.  Given the somewhat horrendous renderings of almost all non-English names by those who only spoke English, almost any name is possible once leaving a Homeland.

(I could see it as a bad rendering of a spoken "oak leaf" type name.)

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Ekblad på skånska... Ekblaw? ;-)