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 form ...

;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 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 � 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 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 (born 1939), Swedish actor *

Börje Ekedahl Börje Ekedahl (August 21, 1928 – January 5, 2006) was a Swedish bobsledder who competed in the early 1950s. He finished seventh in the four-man event at the 1952 Winter Olympics The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olymp ...

(1928–2006), Swedish bobsledder * Börje Ekholm (born 1963), Swedish business executive, CEO of Ericsson *

Börje Fredriksson Börje Fredriksson (June 30, 1937 – September 21, 1968) was a Swedish jazz tenor saxophonist. Fredriksson was born in Eskilstuna, Sweden. He played at the beginning of the 1960s in a quartet with Bobo Stenson (piano), Palle Danielsson (bass) an ...

(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 (born 1935), Swedish politician * Börje Jansson (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 (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 (born 1966), Swedish Alpine skier * Quorthon (Thomas Börje Forsberg) (1966–2004), Swedish songwriter and musician

References

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