Serendipity
So, after my whole post about patronymic naming conventions, I'm home watching West Wing on DVD. They're talking about the Icelandic ambassador. Pres. Bartlett asks for the name and Leo says "Vigdis Olafsdottir" and goes on to say "he is looking forward to meeting you". I immediately had to rewind to make sure I hadn't heard incorrectly. Nope, he definitely said "he is looking forward to meeting you."
As I posted merely hours ago, the -dottir suffix is a *feminine* patronymic. Even in countries that no longer use a patronymic system, but retain vestiges in their surnames, I've never heard of the feminine patronymic being carried forward. Moreover, Iceland *does* still use the patronymic convention, so "Vigdis Olafsdottir" would actually be the daughter of a man named Olaf. In some of the continental Nordic countries it would be possible for there to be a woman with the surname "Olafsson" as a patronymic remnant, but not in Iceland.
So they messed up! I'm surprised. West Wing usually has pretty good script editors and fact checkers. And having looked it up, it turns out that Vigdis is a feminine name as well, so it looks like they pulled an Icelandic name out of the Reykjavík phone book and didn't bother to check gender.
As I posted merely hours ago, the -dottir suffix is a *feminine* patronymic. Even in countries that no longer use a patronymic system, but retain vestiges in their surnames, I've never heard of the feminine patronymic being carried forward. Moreover, Iceland *does* still use the patronymic convention, so "Vigdis Olafsdottir" would actually be the daughter of a man named Olaf. In some of the continental Nordic countries it would be possible for there to be a woman with the surname "Olafsson" as a patronymic remnant, but not in Iceland.
So they messed up! I'm surprised. West Wing usually has pretty good script editors and fact checkers. And having looked it up, it turns out that Vigdis is a feminine name as well, so it looks like they pulled an Icelandic name out of the Reykjavík phone book and didn't bother to check gender.