Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010570, Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:12:28 -0800

Subject
Fwd: Re: Naming conventions / Anderson, VN and Kierkegaard again
Date
Body

Naming conventions

Most English (and German and French) sources use the name "Hans Christian
Andersen", but in Denmark and Scandinavia his name is "H. C. Andersen". It
is an accepted convention in Denmark to use only the initials instead of the
full name of some persons, just as strong as the American "middle initial"
tradition. There is no general rule for this, but you have to know the
correct use for each individual. Thus, the canonical (correct) name form in
Denmark would be H. C. Andersen, H. C. Ørsted and N. F. S. Grundtvig, but
Søren Kierkegaard, Tor Nørretranders and Lars von Trier.