Guild Wars 2

I just finished reading Ghosts of Ascalon(Late, I know), and I was wondering, the Norn surnames *sson and *sdottir mean son and daughter right?

So, that means the two Norn cousins’ names are basically Gullik Odd’s Son and Gyda Odd’s Daughter?

If they’re cousins, why do they have the same father?

I tried to look around to see if anyone has asked this before, but couldn’t find anything. (Have they fixed the forum search function yet?)

The first part of those surnames isn’t always the name of their parent. There’s a Wolfborn norn who goes by the surname Wolfsdottir – as in the daughter of Wolf. Clearly, her father isn’t a Spirit of the Wild.

Their surnames can vary in a multitude of styles. Norn without any achievements or legends have surnames after one of their parents (father/mother’s first name followed by -sson or -sdottir or a variant thereof); this is most commonly seen in children, and they’re named after the more famous of their parents even if they do not like said parent (e.g., Braham Eirsson). Surnames do not get adopted from generation to generation and they can be changed by the individual to fit their own personal legend (e.g., a famous Wolfborn member took the surname Wolfsdottir); married couples may not always share surnames either (though some may, e.g., Knut and Gaerta Whitebear). Some norn may also take titles instead of a surname if it fits them and their legend more (e.g., Borje the Sun Chaser).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Norn

maybe Odds is just a family name or something like that, it doesn’t have to be the parents name

In relation to the above, though not necessarily a family name in the traditional sense, it could be a reference to a particularly renowned ancestor.

Eddie Royale.9605:

the Norn surnames *sson and *sdottir mean son and daughter right?

Old Norse / Norwegian. (still used in Iceland)

son/sen = son
dottir = daughter

Oddsson = Odd’s son
Oddsdottir = Odd’s daugther
Thoresen = Thore’s son (just another variation of the -son/-daughter addition)

Odd is a norse first name, so this is indeed a peculiar occurence. It may be a small slip-up. Or more interesting: both could have had a father named Odd, though it doesn’t have to be the same man! And this is where it gets interesting

It is very common in Norway for people to have 2-part first names. Take a look at my forefathers:

• Anders Mikkelsen Familyfarmname (my great*6 grandfather)
• Mikkel Andersen Familyfarmname (great*5)
• Anders Mikkelsen Familyfarmname (great*4)
• Thore Andersen Familyfarmname (great*3)
• Nils Thoresen Familyfarmname (great great)
• Tormod Hilmar Nilsen Familyfarmname – married to Audny (great grandfather, 3 of 4 names. From here on out, people were given two first names. And the name of the family farm completely replaced the -sen/-dottir addition. I’ve left it out for obvious reasons)
• Their children: Nils Sigmund (firstborn, and my grandfather – married to Solrun Irene), Kjell Asbjørn, Bjørn Oddvar, Tor Atle, Ola Egil, Knut Håvard.
• Stein-Are (my father), Aud Hilde (aunt1), Nina Irene (aunt2)
• Tormod (myself – first one to not have 2 first names).

Similarily, Odd may be one part of names like Odd Arild, Odd Arne, Odd Are, Odd Ove, Odd Olav, Odd Inge, Odd Ivar, and the list goes on for almost forever…

I’ve bolded out a few examples of where we’ve been named after other members of our family. A very interesting (and confusing/random system at times). Unfortunately, it’s fallen out of fashion.

P.S. Tormod Hilmar and Audny is both still alive, and they’ve fathered 37 great grandchildren so far.

Well there could be several reasons why they’re cousins eventhough their names state “oddsson” and “oddsdottir”.
First: just because someone is called “son” or “daughter” they don’t necessarily are the children by blood of the respective person. They could be adopted and Gullik or Gyda could be the child of a deceased silbling of Odd.
They could also not be named by the parents per se but by the farm/house of a respective Norn family.
Another possibility, which is kind of weird, but it happens…there could be just happen to be two Odds, that are related to each other. Some parents give their children very similiar or even the same name. I knew a family with 3 sons, and all three had the name “peter” as their second name. ^^"
Being called by a farm is typical in some villages in Northern Germany…my real name has nothing to with it, but as soon as I step into the village, I’ll be called by the family’s/farmer’s name, that got a piece of land there in the 12th century.
Other people get called by a specific ancestor/relative, that left a big impact on its surroundings…all men in one family are called “Piccolo” for example, because there as several generations ago a man that was very small and worked for a hotel.

I think the Norn also not always follow the rule of the person being called by their parents and have other name finding systems too, for example by their personal acchievements and legends, their occupation or a characteristic trait.