Surnames in names of smaller companies in Sweden : a diachronic study

In this paper, I present a study of business names in Sweden from1935 to 2009. The names, collected from five different trades, are analyzedwith special focus on the usage of personal names, especially surnames, inthem. The main results are that surnames were more common in the earlierstages, though there were large differences between trades, and that surnamesto some extent have been replaced by the use of first names. These first namesare in several cases taken from the name of the proprietor, but there are alsofirst names alluding to well-known personalities, real or fictive. Other developmentsare that more business names now contain English words, and thatword puns are common, especially in the names of hairdressing salons