Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 8:16 pm Post subject: Finnish-American made US independence come true
The delegate who cast the deciding vote in favor of the United States Declaration of Independence, John Morton from Pennsylvania, was Finnish-American!
His great grandparent Martti Marttinen (in Finnish) or Mårten Mårtensson (in Swedish) was from Finland and settled in Nya Sverige = New Sweden and his descendants anglized their name into Morton.
Oh Suomi, cradle of freedom!
Yes, I heard they did. When I wake up to another rainy, boring day, at least I can rejoice in the fact that I live in the world's best country!
My name is fairly common in Norway. According to the Norwegian Central Bureau of Statistics it's the 43. most common male name. The 44. most common name is Christian and both these two names have a certain royal ring to them in Norway (and Denmark), as virtually all the Danish-Norwegian kings during the long union were called either Fredrik or Christian. And the last one was called Christian Fredrik...lol!
In Germany too, the German equivalent, Friedrich, was a very royal, Prussian name and thus it is seen as rather old-fashioned and reactionary today, so that few young people are called Friedrich. Perhaps that trend is not so strong in the Netherlands, after all half of them are called Wim = Willem, a name that is almost taboo in its Norwegian (Vilhelm) or German (Wilhelm) form and rather unusal in the English form (William).
BTW, here are the 10 most common male names in Norway:
1 Jan
2 Per
3 Bjørn
4 Ole
5 Kjell
6 Lars
7 Arne
8 Knut
9 Svein
10 Hans
And the 10 most common female names:
1 Anne
2 Inger
3 Kari
4 Marit
5 Liv
6 Ingrid
7 Solveig
8 Astrid
9 Eva
10 Bjørg
Nobody ever names their kids Frederick these days in America. It's seen as far too old fashioned, so you will only see old men with that name, just like "Bob", "Frank", and "Dick" are never heard anymore among the younger generations. _________________ Operation Northwoods - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
Favorite languages = English/Spanish
Followed by Italian/French/Dutch
In Germany too, the German equivalent, Friedrich, was a very royal, Prussian name and thus it is seen as rather old-fashioned and reactionary today, so that few young people are called Friedrich. Perhaps that trend is not so strong in the Netherlands, after all half of them are called Wim = Willem, a name that is almost taboo in its Norwegian (Vilhelm) or German (Wilhelm) form and rather unusal in the English form (William).
Well the big difference with Germany here is that the Dutch got ridd of nobility in the early 13th century ... "Willem" is a very ordinary name, and has the same "commonness" about it as joe or billy.
Hmm... I don't find 'William' to be unusual at all in England. Actually, I know several people with that name. However, a few years ago, I was in an all-boys class in which 25% of them were called either James or Jamie.
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 7:21 pm Post subject: Re: Finnish-American made US independence come true
Fredrik wrote:
The delegate who cast the deciding vote in favor of the United States Declaration of Independence, John Morton from Pennsylvania, was Finnish-American!
His great grandparent Martti Marttinen (in Finnish) or Mårten Mårtensson (in Swedish) was from Finland and settled in Nya Sverige = New Sweden and his descendants anglized their name into Morton.
Oh Suomi, cradle of freedom!
Oh yes, I know! And for some reason many people in Finland are proud of that.
_________________ Aja hiljaa sillalla.
Ry stadig op die brug.
Drive slowly on the bridge.
Kör långsamt på bron.
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