Börje is an old

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

male name. It is a cognate of

Birger Birger is a Scandinavian name from Old Norse, ''bjarga'', meaning "to help, to save, to protect". It is widely used in Norway as Birger but also as Børge. The Swedish variant of ''Birger'' would soon evolve into ''Börje'', however, the prior for ...

;Elof Hellquist, ''Svensk etymologisk ordbok''. Lund 1922. Börje is the form that has developed naturally according to the

sound change A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...

laws of Swedish, whilst Birger is a literary form that has been common since the nineteenth century, when archaic forms of names became fashionable.

Etymology

The

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

of Börje is uncertain. Probably it is a short form of names beginning with ''Berg‐''. Less likely it means ”helper”, from the verb ''bärga''. It has also been suggested that it is derived from the name element ''‑ger'' (spear).

Sound changes

Börje developed from

Old Swedish Old Swedish (Swedish language, Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken fro ...

''Birghir'' which was pronounced with a

voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , ...

� irɣir The voiced velar fricative was spelled ⟨gh⟩ i Old SwedishElias Wessén, ''Svensk språkhistoria I: Ljudlära och ordböjningslära''. Fourth edition. Stockholm 1955. and changed to /j/ after /r/ in modern Svenska. Börje is an ija‑stem.Ragnvald Iversen, ''Norrøn grammatikk''. Seventh edition, revised by Eyvind Fjeld Halvorsen. Oslo 1973. Ija‑stems ended in ‑ir i Old Swedish, which regularly developed into a word final ‑e in modern Swedish. This explains why Börje has accent 2 today: since the synkope at the transition from

Proto-Norse Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...

to Norse the name has been disyllabic, which leads to a word being pronounced with the grave accent in modern Swedish. Hence, the vowel in the second syllable of old Swedish ''Birghir'' or ''Birgher'' was no svarabhakti vowel like the ''‑e‑'' in modern Swedish words such as the a‑stem ''dager'', which at one stage was monosyllabic (dagr) and therefore has accent 1. The first vowel ''‑i‑'' of ''Birghir'' between a ''b'' and an ''r'' changed into an ''‑y‑'' and then into an ''‑ö‑''. The vowel was ''‑i‑'' labialised by the influence of the initial /b/.

The form ''Birger''

The form ''Birger'' has been revived from the old language within the last 200 years. This "revived" form has accent 1, like an a‑stem with a

nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...

suffix consisting of the svarabhakti‐vowel ''‑e‑'' ''plus ‑r''. Swedish names revived during romanticism commonly take a historically unjustified pronunciation.

Popularity

Börje was very common as a given name in 1930–49. Today it is almost never given as a first name that is used to address the person. In 2017 approximately 7 500 persons had the name as their first name or name of address. Name day in Sweden: 9 June).

People with the given name Börje

Börje Ahlstedt Nils Börje Ahlstedt (born 21 February 1939) is a Swedish actor who has worked extensively with the world-famous director Ingmar Bergman in films like ''Fanny and Alexander'' (1982), ''The Best Intentions'' (1992), '' Sunday's Children'' (1992) a ...

(born 1939), Swedish actor * Börje Ekedahl (1928–2006), Swedish bobsledder *

Börje Ekholm Börje Ekholm (born 1963) is a Swedish business executive who is the chief executive officer of Ericsson, and has been since January 16, 2017. Prior to his appointment, he was chief executive officer of Patricia Industries, and from 2005 to 2015 h ...

(born 1963), Swedish business executive, CEO of Ericsson * Börje Fredriksson (1937–1968), Swedish jazz tenor saxophonist *

Börje Haraldsson Börje Haraldsson is a Swedish Physician-scientist known for his work on kidney disease. He is the Chief Executive Officer at Oncorena AB, and a Professor of Physiology in Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. He is also a Fellow ...

(born 1957), Swedish physician and researcher *

Börje Hörnlund Börje Hörnlund (born 17 June 1935) is a Swedish retired politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws ...

(born 1935), Swedish politician *

Börje Jansson Börje Jansson (born 10 November 1942) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from Sweden. His best years were in 1971 and 1972, when he finished third in the 125cc world championship riding for the Maico factory racing team. He won th ...

(born 1952), Swedish motorcycle road racer *

Börje Leander Oscar Börje Leander (7 March 1918 – 30 October 2003) was a Swedish footballer. He played 249 matches as a midfielder for AIK and scored 25 goals, mostly successful penalty kicks. He also played 23 times for the Swedish national team, scoring ...

(1918–2003), Swedish footballer *

Börje Salming Anders Börje Salming (; 17 April 1951 – 24 November 2022) was a Swedish ice hockey player. He was a defenceman who played professionally for 23 seasons, for the clubs Brynäs IF, Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, and AIK. He spent 16 ...

(1951–2022), Swedish ice hockey player *

Börje Vestlund Börje Vestlund (2 February 1960 – 22 September 2017) was a Swedish social democratic politician, member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to ...

(1960–2017), Swedish social democratic politician *

Börje-Bengt Hedblom Börje-Bengt Hedblom was a Sweden, Swedish bobsledder who competed from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. He won a bronze medal in the four-man event at the FIBT World Championships 1961, 1961 FIBT World Championships in Lake Placid, New Yor ...

, Swedish bobsledder *

Lars-Börje Eriksson Lars-Börje "Bulan" Eriksson (born 21 October 1966) is a Swedish former alpine skier Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel bindings, unlike other types of skiing ( c ...

(born 1966), Swedish Alpine skier *

Quorthon Thomas Börje Forsberg (17 February 1966 – 3 June 2004),Date stated in the death notice for Ace Börje Forsberg that his family put in the swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 23 June 2004, the death notice also included the lyrics to the Batho ...

(Thomas Börje Forsberg) (1966–2004), Swedish songwriter and musician

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borje Swedish masculine given names da:Børge no:Børge nn:Børge