Why was my great-grandfather named Ole? The question sounds downright silly at first blush, since it seems like about half of all males in Norway had that name. Indeed, among Kari Larsdatter’s relations and in-laws, there are enough Ole’s to make for a lot of confusion. Her eldest son (more about him later), her husband (not the boy’s father), and her son-in-law, are all named Ole. And the proportion overall certainly is very high. I started with 1840 and tallied the first 100 boys christened in S. Fron: 16 out of 100 were named Ole. So what’s to question?
Well, the naming of children in Norway followed rather strong customs back then; not 100% of the time, of course, but in rural areas, not far from it. Here is an explanation of the tradition, again from the invaluable Digitalarkivet :
… Speaking of names, your search might benefit from a unique Norwegian custom. In Norway, especially in the rural districts, there have long been very strict rules about naming descendants. Some of these rules persist even today. It was customary, for example, for the eldest son to be named after his paternal grandfather and the second son after his maternal grandfather. In a similar fashion, the eldest and second daughters were named after the respective grandmothers.
After the grandparents’ names had been used, the great-grandparents’ names were the next to be given, although without strict rules as to the order. Special circumstances might interfere with these rules. For example, the name of a deceased spouse was to be used first; and the name of the father or mother was given if the child was baptized after a parent’s death.
Based on this tradition, one would expect to find one or more Ole’s among the male ancestors of our great grandfather. But, as you can see on the Generations page, there is not a single Ole among his two grandfathers and four great-grandfathers.
Ole was the second son, and his maternal grandfather’s name was Lars. So was his father’s, which may have triggered an exception, since naming after the father was normally only done if the father died before the child was baptized (see above). Secondly, he might well have been named Poul, after his paternal grandfather, since the first son Poul had died several years earlier. This type of “recycling” was quite common. But barring that, there were still Svend, David, Peder, and Johannes to choose from.
Since it was very un-customary to choose a name based only on the parents’ impulse (as is often the case today), there must be a story behind this. And since there is virtually no chance of finding that story, I just may have to invent one for my fiction. Yes, I am also writing fiction with a loose connection to these people and the circumstances under which they may have lived. I haven’t “published” any of it yet. Stay tuned.