Designations of Origin in 15th Century Stockholm

Abstract

In this paper, designations of origin referring to persons living in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1483 to 1492 are analysed. They indicate that the individuals so designated mainly came from Finland (then a part of Sweden), Denmark and a few Swedish provinces. It is clear that the vast majority of immigrants to the city were not known by designations of origin, and that the designations used were hardly representative in terms of the origins of the immigrants at large. As reasons for this lack of representativeness, perceptions of various regions and groups and the respective places held by the designations of origin in a lexicon or onomasticon are proposed.