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on 12/24/02 6:39 PM, Gabriel Gudding at [log in to unmask] wrote: > about the Scandinavian last name: the last name rhymes with > Pudding. A "Gudding" is a small vigorous seabird that flickers around the > cliffs of fjords (really), but it also means "person of God." My ancestors, > the Syversons and the Guddings, sailed from Trondheim in the late 1860s and > settled in Ulen and Flom and Fergus Falls, Minnesota. The Guddings were and > are shipwrights in Trondheim. Well, well, Gabriel! So we're relatives, it seems! Your explanation of the name 'Gudding' brings the Icelandic, fairly common Christian name 'Guðjón' to mind. 'Guð' meaning 'God' and 'jón', on it's own, one of the most common Christian names in this language, being the original of 'John', i.e. 'anybody', or Nomen Nescio. And altho I've never ever been to Trondheim, or Þrándheimur, as we say, I feel I know the place intimately since I've met so many individuals from there. Till we meet to trace our common family trees, Best Árni -- Árni Ibsen Stekkjarkinn 19, 220 Hafnarfjördur, Iceland tel.: +354-555-3991 e-mail: [log in to unmask] http://www.centrum.is/~aibsen/