Scandinavian patronyms were generally derived from the father's given name with the addition of a suffix meaning 'son' or 'daughter' or by occupation like Møller - ( Miller ) naming tradition remained commonly used throughout the Scandinavian countries during the time of surname formation.
Descendants of Danish or Norwegian immigrants to the United States frequently have similar names ending in the suffix "-sen" or have changed the spelling to "-son".
Many of these patronymics are, however, very rare, local or testimony of unusual descent, e.g. Heilesen from Northern Jutland, Holdensen and Boldsen from the former Duchy of Schleswig or Common etymological classes of surnames are occupational (e.g., Møller—miller, Schmidt—smith, and Fisker—fisher, for example names taken after a village or farmstead inhabited by ancestors.
Later acts have attempted to motivate people to change to surnames that would allow safer identification of individuals.
[5] The general tendency over the past century has been to give up the commonest names and adopt less frequently-used ones.
Many farm names and thus surnames derive from just one word describing the most obvious or distinguishing geographical feature of their location (such as "Dal", meaning "valley"), while others again are compounds of several words describing the farm's location or geographical features (such as "Solberg", meaning "sunny mountain/hill").
For example, the surnames "Wiik" and "Wiig" are common variant spellings of "Vik" with well over a thousand people bearing each surname,[9] and "Viik", "Vig", "Viig" and "Wig" (among others) are additional, less common variants of the same name.
For example, the proportion of the population of Bergen bearing a patronymic-derived family name decreased by half in the forty years after 1900.
Many family names consist of items from nature, for example Lind/Lindberg (linden/lime + mountain), Berg/Bergkvist (mountain/mountain + twig), Alström/Ahlström (alder + stream), or Dahl/Dahlin (valley).
Families also frequently have military-oriented names such as Skarpsvärd (sharp sword), Sköld (shield) and Stolt (proud).
Those names were originally assigned to soldiers under the military allotment system in effect from the 16th century.