What is the origin of the Swedish name "Estatr"? My grandma is having
her 90th birthday and I would like tyo explain the origin of her name,
which she states is a very old name in the Swedish culture.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 16 Feb 2005 15:35 PST

Dear james52,

With your knowledge of your family's history, do you think that it is
it possible that the original spelling of the name was "Esdotter" at
some point in the past, but it has been corrupted?

Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by james52-ga on 16 Feb 2005 18:27 PST

I have asked her about the spelling many times and she always says
that that is the way it was spelled when she was a small girl. She
never mentioned an alternative spelling. She grew up in Sweden.

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Request for Question Clarification by blazius-ga on 17 Feb 2005 02:02 PST

Hello,

I have checked the official Swedish name statistics at
http://www.scb.se/templates/Standard____31245.asp.  According to this,
there is no living Swedish citizen called "Estatr".  However, there
are
   17 Swedish women called "Esta"
14194 Swedish women called "Ester"
    1 Swedish woman called "Este"

Some similar names:
   21 Swedish women called "Åsta"
 9545 Swedish women called "Asta"

I have discussed this case with a native Swede.  He has never heard of
the name "Estatr", but he suggests that the "-tr" part might be as
mis-spelling of "-dr", which is a short form of "-dotter" or
"-daughter".

I believe that "Estatr" is a mis-spelling of either "Ester" or
"Estadr".  If you find that satisfactory, I could provide an answer
for those two names.  If not, I suggest that you should check the
spelling one more time - remember that special Swedish characters such
as "Ö"/"ö", "Ä"/"ä" and "Å"/"å" does not have any standard
counterparts in English.

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Clarification of Question by james52-ga on 17 Feb 2005 14:27 PST

Thanks so much for the researh.

Lets go with ?Estadr? that appears to be very close to her name.

I talked with her again and she said that her name has always been
spelled ?Estatr Lovestrome? and she is a native of Sweden. It could
have been changed some how when she was born by her parents, it?s hard
to say. A lot can happen in 90 years!

Thanks for your help!

I am assuming that your grandmother's given name is "Estadr" and that
"-dr" is used as an abbreviation of "-dotter", meaning "daughter of". 
"Estadr" would then mean "daughter of Esta".

There is very little information about the name "Esta" on the web -
most of it points to the fact that it means "from the east" in
Italian.  I looked up "Esta" in a Norwegian "name encyclopedia", here
Esta was listed as a short form of "Ester" ("Esta" sounds very much
the same as "Ester" when pronounced in Swedish).  Ester/Esther is a
very common name in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden.

A Swedish web site (http://www.svenskanamn.se/name_page.asp?name=Ester)
gives this description of the name "Ester":

"Ester is on the way back to its former top placement on the list of
popular Swedish first names.  20 years ago, Ester was still the 40th
most common female name, but its figures dropped sharply when most of
the women born in the 1800's had died.  Among youger Swedes, Ester is
now on the rise.  During the [19]90's its popularity multiplied, and
by the start of the new millennium Ester was among the 150 most common
names in Sweden.

Ester har been used as a Christian name in Sweden since the 15th
century.  During the 17th century Ester replaced the older Swedish
name "Estrid".  "Ester" derives from the persian word "stara", meaning
"star".  Ester has had an official "name day" in Sweden since 1901,
replacing Amos place in the almanac."

(The name "Estrid" is not related to "Ester" - "Estrid" is an old
Nordic name meaning "bautiful goddess".  "Estrid" is not used much
today, but its close relative "Astrid" is in common use in
Scandinavia.)

Apart from its Persian meaning of "star", some web pages translates
Est(h)er as "myrtle leaf" (Persian) and "secret" (Hebrew).  The web
site behindthename.com has these descriptions for "Esta", "Ester" and
"Esther":

"ESTA
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English
Pronounced: ES-ta [..]
Pet form of ESTHER

ESTER
Gender: Feminine
Usage: Scandinavian, Spanish, Portuguese [..]
Scandinavian, Spanish and Portuguese form of ESTHER

ESTHER
Gender: Feminine
Usage: English, Jewish, French, Biblical
Pronounced: ES-tur (English), es-TER (French) [..]
Possibly means "star" in Persian.  Alternatively it could be a Hebrew
form of ISHTAR, the name of a Persian goddess.  The Book of Esther in
the Old Testament tells of Queen Esther, the Jewish wife of the king
of Persia, who saves many Jews from persecution."

The current Swedish use of the names above are as follows:

14194 Swedish women are called "Ester"
 1158 Swedish women are called "Esther"
   17 Swedish women are called "Esta"
    1 Swedish woman is called "Este"

You might also like to know that the surname "Lovestrome" is not used
at all in Sweden today.  "Lovestrome" is probably a transcription of
"Lövström"/"Löfström", which is used by 417/1058 people in Sweden.

I hope this answers your question!  If not, please request an answer
clarification before you proceed to rate the answer.

Search strategy:
I searched Google for several plausible variations of the name given
in the original question.  The primary sources used to answer your
question were:

http://www.babynameworld.com/e.asp
http://baby-names.adoption.com/search/Esta.html
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=esta
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester_%28namn%29
http://www.svenskanamn.se/name_page.asp?name=Ester
http://www.svenskanamn.se/name_page.asp?name=Estrid
http://www.andythenamebender.com/name-meanings/Ester.htm
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=ester
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=esther
http://www.behindthename.com/comment/search.php?extra=c&terms=esther
http://www.scb.se/templates/Standard____31245.asp

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Clarification of Answer by blazius-ga on 18 Feb 2005 02:08 PST

You could surprise you grandma by saying "Grattis på födelsedagen!" on
her birthday (it means "happy birthday" in Swedish).  Swedes tend to
celebrate their name's day as well as their birthdays, the Swedish
name's day for Ester is the 31th March.  You could then tell wish her
"Grattis på namnsdagen!"

esta is probably from esther, the queen of persia in the bible who
saved the lives of jews?