MY SAMI NAME

Gárdin Mountainhouse is what our family is famous for.

My sami name is not the same as my Norwegian name. My sami name is "Gárdin Inggá Brita Elin" not Elin Kåven.

After the war and the norwegians, swedish and finnish took over, the sami people where not able to buy land unless they had a Norwegian name. That´s why everyone had to start using Norwegian names.

The sami names contain of 3-4 generations of your family. The family is very important for the sami people of course, and people always want to know your familyname and exactly who you are and where you come from. The name explains exactly who you are. It is build so that it is easy for people to understand who you are. Not just your name, but your bloodline.



So my sami name contains of one of my grandparents name, one of my parents name, and my given name. What decides if you should use your mother or fathers name depends of who of them is most known to people -who the most people know. In my case - my grandmother had a tourist mountain house in Karasjok, so everyone knew that place and her. She was called Gárdin Ingá. Gárdin is the sami name of the mountain house Ravnastua.
My grandmother had 9 children, and one of them was my mother Brita.

Gárdin Ingá - my grandmother. 
Brita - my mother
Elin - My given name


Sometimes this system of names ca be really funny. For example we have "Sara Sara Sara Sara" and "Hanssa Hansa Hansa Hansa". 4 generations of Hansa and Sara.