The Jordan Story

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Investigation of the Name Scholdberg

by Dave Jordan
Introduction

To try to gain insight into our Scholdberg ancestors and their location some research was done on the origins and meaning of their names. These included not only Scholdberg, but also the given names for the two native individuals that have been identified, Knut Oscar Scholdberg and his father Carl Johan Scholdberg.

Scholdberg

Two different spellings of Scholdberg have appeared in my research Scholdberg, Scholdburg, with the most frequent being Scholdberg. In actuality the name is probably written as Schöldberg, but all the names so far came from English records so the "ö" was written as "o".

The ending "berg" means "mountain" in both German and Swedish. No city or town called Scholdberg or Scholdburg could be found in a Geographic Names Dictionary. No entry could be found in a German or Danish dictionary for either "schold" or "scheld."

When I first found the name in 1987 I wasn't sure about the country of origin for our Knut Oscar Schöldberg. With time it was found from his seaman records that he was from Sweden, although at this time the exact town in Sweden is not known.

The name Scholdberg is not very common in the United States and no current London Telephone Directory contains it. In a search of old London Directories, only a variant, Scheldberg, appeared. It was shown as Sheldberg & Company and appeared in the 1871 Court Directory. I don't believe there is any connection except a similarity of spelling. The "Sch" spelling of Schöldberg is also not common in Sweden with only about Sweden 20 families spelling it that way in the directory.

Thus it appears that our Knut Oscar Schöldberg met our Elizabeth Priscilla Steward while on shore leave in Poplar, married and settled there. There is no evidence any of his family came to London and the only offspring of that marriage are the descendants of Knut's son Joseph Canute Oscar Schöldberg, alias James Oscar Jordan. Thus our offspring did not bring the name Scholdberg to the United States.

Given Names

An investigation was done for the given names for Knut Oscar Schöldberg, his son Joseph Canute Oscar Schöldberg and his father Carl Johan Schöldberg. Here is what was found.

Knut Oscar

  • Knut or Knute is from the Swedish "knut," meaning "a knot."
  • King Canute (Knut) was a Danish king who won a battle at Knutsford. Note the dual use of the name Canute/ Knut.
  • Oscar II (1829-1907) was king of Norway and Sweden.
  • The given names Knut and Oscar are not common in the south of Sweden. Since his father was a tanner, he might have living somewhere around Dalarna, where the centre of Swedish fur and leather industry is located.

Carl Johan

  • Carl is a form or Karl and Charles. Both Carl and Karl are in use in Sweden today, in fact their current king uses Carl.
  • Johan is the Swedish form of John.
  • Karl Johan is the name of the main street in Oslo, the capital of Norway.

In conclusion, our Schöldbergs were from Sweden, and to our favor is that it is a very uncommon name even in Sweden. Most likely our family was from the middle to northern parts and probably near a port given Knut Oscar's life as a sailor.

Knut Oscar, Carl Johan and Canute Oscar are very proper Swedish names. While we don't know for sure, our Knut Oscar may have been named after their King Oscar at that time. And Carl Johan may well be named after the main street is Oslo.

Notes
  1. Initial Web Publication Date: 2/5/2003
  2. Modified:
  3. Desktop Master file: Stories_Jordan