Pedersen

Pedersen is the fifth most common surname in Denmark, carried by about 3.4 per cent of the population, and the sixth most common in Norway. The double footing is the unusual thing about it. This is a name with two national homes rather than one, and the roll of people who have carried it reads as two country records interleaved under a single spelling: a Danish chief justice and a Norwegian party leader, a Danish gymnast and a Norwegian ski jumper, a Danish speedway rider and a Norwegian speed skater.

It follows that two Pedersens share a naming habit and not an ancestor. The -sen ending is a statement of parentage, so the name was minted afresh wherever a Peder had a son, in Danish and Norwegian parishes alike, and it was minted so often that the modern lists have to separate bearers by country and by trade. Holger Pedersen the linguist has to be told from Holger Pedersen the astronomer, Helga Pedersen of Denmark from Helga Pedersen of Norway, Karl Pedersen the chess player from Karl Pedersen the wrestler.

The earliest bearer on the record is also the weightiest. Christiern Pedersen (1480–1554) was a canon of the Danish church who was at the same time a humanist scholar, a writer, a printer and a publisher. The combination is the whole point of him.

The name went back onto the page from the other side. Vilhelm Pedersen (1820–1859) was the Danish artist who illustrated the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Carl-Henning Pedersen (1913–2007) painted. In letters the name runs on through the Norwegian novelist Bente Pedersen (born 1961), the Norwegian journalist, author and translator Odd Kvaal Pedersen (1935–1990), and the American author Laura Pedersen (born 1965).

Knud Pedersen (1925–2014) was a Danish resistance leader and the head of the Churchill Boys. The record gives him the word that matters: leader, not recruit.

Dan Pedersen served as a captain in the United States Navy and is considered the driving force behind the creation of the Fighter Tactics Instructor program, the school the rest of the world knows as Topgun.

Mikael Pedersen (1855–1929) was a Danish inventor, and the record fixes him not to a Danish town but to an English one, Dursley.

In Denmark the name sits across the sciences without ever gathering into a dynasty. Peder Oluf Pedersen (1874–1941) worked as an engineer and physicist, and Holger Pedersen (born 1946) as an astronomer. Abroad, Charles J. Pedersen (1904–1989) was an American organic chemist and Nancy Pedersen an American genetic epidemiologist.

Danish scholarship of the last century carried three Pedersens whose subjects almost touch. Holger Pedersen (1867–1953) was a linguist. Johannes Pedersen (1883–1977) worked as a theologian and a linguist both. Olaf Pedersen (1920–1997) was a historian of science. Three neighbouring desks, and nothing whatever connecting the three men beyond the ending on the name.

The surname holds the same weight in the social sciences and in university administration. Susan Pedersen is an American historian and Willy Pedersen (born 1952) a Norwegian sociologist. Torben Mark Pedersen (born 1960) is a Danish economist and politician who founded the political party Liberalisterne, and George Pedersen (born 1931) served as a Canadian academic administrator.

The clearest illustration of the two-country problem is a pair of women who share a first name as well as a surname. Helga Pedersen (1911–1980) was a Danish Chief Justice and politician. Helga Pedersen (born 1973) is a Norwegian deputy leader of the Labour Party. The record can only tell them apart by writing the country after the name.

Danish public life holds plenty more of them: Inger Stilling Pedersen (1929–2017), Thor Pedersen (born 1945) and Torsten Schack Pedersen (born 1976). On the Norwegian side the list runs from Jonas Pedersen (1871–1953) and Johanne Samueline Pedersen (1887–1961) through Sigurd Pedersen (1893–1968) to Anne Rygh Pedersen (born 1967).

Emigration put the name into North American politics too. Lena Pedersen (born 1940) is a Canadian politician and social worker from Nunavut, Red Pedersen (born 1935) a Canadian politician, and Blaine Pedersen a Canadian politician in Manitoba. In the United States it reaches from James Pedersen (1868–1944) to Henry Pedersen Jr. (1929–2024) of Nebraska and the lawyer and politician Jamie Pedersen (born 1968).

Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen (1946–2005) played bass. Henrik Bolberg Pedersen (born 1960) plays trumpet and flugelhorn with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, and Hallgeir Pedersen (born 1973) plays jazz guitar in Norway.

The banjo turns up twice, once on each side of the Atlantic: Bjarne Bent Rønne Pedersen (1935–1993) was a Danish musician, banjo player and singer, and Herb Pedersen (born 1944) is an American musician, guitarist, banjo player and singer-songwriter. Gunner Møller Pedersen (born 1943) composes, Christopher S. Pedersen (born 1986) sings as a Norwegian baritone, Monika Pedersen sings with the band Sinphonia, and Lene Marlin Pedersen (born 1980) is the Norwegian musician the world calls simply Lene Marlin.

The strangest cluster on the whole roll is Danish gymnastics. Oluf Pedersen (1878–1917), Peder Larsen Pedersen (1880–1966), Carl Pedersen (1883–1971), Olaf Pedersen (1884–1972), Hans Pedersen (1887–1943), Christian Pedersen (1889–1953), Hans Eiler Pedersen (1890–1971), Johannes Pedersen (1892–1982), Dynes Pedersen (1893–1960) and Peter Dorf Pedersen (1897–1967) were all Danish gymnasts, and Christian Pedersen competed at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Norway answered with Carl Alfred Pedersen (1882–1960), a gymnast and triple jumper, and Paul Pedersen (1886–1948).

Danish speedway took the name next, and kept it: Jan O. Pedersen (born 1962), Jan Pedersen (born 1967), Ronni Pedersen (born 1974), Nicki Pedersen (born 1977) and Bjarne Pedersen (born 1978) all rode. On the water, Carl Pedersen (1884–1968), Finn Pedersen (1925–2012) and Bjarne Pedersen (born 1944) rowed for Denmark and Thor Pedersen (1924–2008) for Norway, Trygve Pedersen (1884–1967) sailed for Norway, and Helmer Pedersen (1930–1987) won New Zealand an Olympic gold in yachting.

Norway's share of the name is largely written on snow and ice. Haakon Pedersen (1906–1991) and Sverre Lunde Pedersen (born 1992) took to speed skates, Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen (born 1964) to cross-country skis, Trond Jøran Pedersen (born 1958) to a ski jump, Snorre Pedersen (born 1972) to a skeleton sled, and Cato Zahl Pedersen (born 1959) to a pair of skis. Terje Pedersen (born 1943) threw the javelin and Karl Pedersen (1902–1988) wrestled at the 1928 Olympics. Two more took the whistle instead: Rune Pedersen (born 1963) refereed through the 1990s, and Christina Pedersen (born 1981) referees football.