Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Taxing Last Names by the Syllable:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2008_10_19-2008_10_25.shtml#1224716265
From my UCLA colleague Kendra Willson's Political Inflections: Grammar
and the Icelandic Surname Debate, pp. 135-37:
Only some 15% of contemporary Icelanders bear surnames inherited in
a fixed form. A person's first name remains his or her primary
name, while the indication of whose son or daughter he or she is is
viewed by Icelanders less as a name than as a secondary descriptive
label. The fact that the Icelandic telephone catalogue is organized
by given name is a source of wonder to foreigners and a locus of
national pride for many Icelanders....
[S]urnames entered Modern Icelandic usage [starting with the 17th
century].... Over the following two centuries, the assumption of
surnames by members of the upper and upwardly mobile classes became
more and more common....
The first official [but unsuccessful] attempt to stem the tide of
surnames was a proposal presented to ... the Icelandic parliament,
in 1881.... This law would have required Icelanders to obtain royal
permission before adopting a surname, as well as exacting a fee of
500 crowns ... and an annual [tax] of 10 crowns per syllable of the
last name.
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