Re: Svein
in reply to a message by NockNock
Some regions of America had a lot of Scandinavian migrants a very long time ago, Pronunciations may be different again. Then again it may be a German name disguised as Scandinavian. The standard modern meaning is "boy", but the original sense seems to have been "brother-in-law" or "son-in-law", an archaic relationship-term related to German Schweiger (mother-in-law), Schwäher (father-in-law) and Schwager (brother-in-law - originally the same word as Schwäher), and OE -swiria (sister's son).