Did you know that “Napoleon has been a common given name in the Faroe Islands since the 1800s”?
Neither did I, until I began researching Napoleon’s influence on names.
Apparently, it all has to do with Faroese national hero Nólsoyar Páll (“Paul from Nólsoy”).
Nólsoyar Páll — born as Poul Poulsen on the island of Nólsoy in 1766 — was a seaman/trader/farmer/poet who helped improve his country in various ways:
One of his most impressive achievements was his attempt to develop direct trade between the Faroe islands and the rest of Europe. To develop this trade, he bought and rebuilt a wrecked schooner. The ship was named Royndin Fríða (The Free Enterprise), and was the first seagoing ship built in the Faroe Islands and the first Faroese-owned vessel since the early Middle Ages.
Nólsoyar Páll had a strong admiration for Napoleon — who, at that time, was in the middle of trying to conquer Europe — and he wanted to name a son after the French leader.
His second child turned out to be a girl (his first child was also a girl), but that did not deter Nólsoyar Páll. He asked to name his daughter Napolonia, but the priest disapproved. Instead, she was named Apolonia after the Greek god Apollo.
Soon after, Nólsoyar Páll convinced his brother, Jákup Nolsøe, to name his son Napoleon. His brother agreed, calling him Napoleon Nolsøe. This is most probably the first Faroe Islander to be named Napoleon. Napoleon Nolsøe went on to become the first native certified doctor in the Faroe Islands.
Nólsoyar Páll’s nephew was born in 1809 — around the time Nólsoyar Páll himself was lost at sea.
I’m not sure how many Faroese Napoleons have been born since then, but my source noted that the Faroe Islands had 29 Napoleons and several Apolonias as of early 2018.
“Napoleon” didn’t pop up in the Faroe Islands baby name rankings for 2020, but if I comb through recent Faroese baby name data (2001-2020) for Napoleon and Apolonia specifically, I find…
- Napoleon, b. 2002
- Bárður Napoleon, b. 2004
- Hanus Napoleon, b. 2006
- William Napoleon, b. 2006
- Sofus Napoleon, b. 2007
- Ella Apollonia, b. 2008
- Apolonia Ró, b. 2012
- Napolion, b. 2013
- Reimar Napoleon, b. 2019
- Andrew Napoleon, b. 2020
It’s a short list, but the Faroe Islands only welcomes about 600-700 babies per year, so — proportionally speaking — these numbers are actually pretty impressive.
Sources: National hero inspired to name son after Napoleon Bonaparte, Nólsoyar Páll – Wikipedia, Statistics Faroe Islands, Births – Hagstove Foroya, FamilySearch.org
