På leit etter samanhengar mellom helgenkult og namneskikk: Synneve og Borni

Sammendrag

Saint Sunniva, the only female Norwegian saint recognized by the Catholic church, is known to have been venerated throughout Norway before the Reformation. This mythical figure grew out of an older collective of saints and appears in medieval sources. Another female figure belonging to the same collective is known only from post-Reformation sources, where she is called Saint Borni (or Borne). Sunniva is connected to the island of Selja (an early episcopal residence with several churches and a monastery) in the Nordfjord district and became the patron saint of Bergen. Borni is connected to the island of Kinn (with a medieval church) in the Sunnfjord district. Both of the given names Synneve (< Sunniva) and Borni are known to have been more frequent in Western Norway than elsewhere. The present article investigates the geographical distributions of these names, esp. in the 1801 census, and discusses whether they may reflect veneration of Saint Sunniva and Borni before (and possibly after) the Reformation.