Thorsten Bengtson

Thorsten (Thorstein, Torstein, Torsten) is a Scandinavian given name. The Old Norse name was ''Þórsteinn''. It is a compound of the theonym ''Þór'' ('' Thor'') and ''steinn'' "stone", which became ''Thor'' and ''sten'' in Old Danish and Old Swedish.

The name is one of a group of Old Norse names containing the theonym ''Thor'', besides other such as ''Þórarin, Þórhall, Þórkell, Þórfinnr, Þórvald, Þórvarðr, Þórolf'', most of which, however, do not survive as modern names given with any frequency.

The name is attested in medieval Iceland, e.g. Þorsteinn rauður Ólafsson (c. 850 – 880), Þōrsteinn Eirīkssonr (late 10th century), and in literature such as ''Draumr Þorsteins Síðu-Hallssonar''.

The Old English equivalent of the Scandinavian and Norman name is '' Thurstan'', attested after the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century as the name of a medieval archbishop of York (died 1140), of an abbot of Pershore (1080s) and of an abbot of Glastonbury (1090s).
The English surname Thurston is presumably derived from this given name.
The English given name Dustin is derived from a surname which in origin may have been derived in turn from the Scandinavian given name.

As a modern given name, Thorsten and Torsten also see some popularity in the English-speaking world and in German-speaking Europe.

Modern people with this name

Pre-World War I births

* Thorsten Guttormsen Fretheim (born 1808), Norwegian politician
* Thorsten Nordenfelt (1842–1920), Swedish inventor and industrialist
* Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929), Norwegian-American sociologist and economist
* Torsten Nothin (1884–1972), Swedish politician
* Thorstein John Ohnstad Fretheim (1886–1971), Norwegian politician
* Thorsten Grönfors (1888–1968), Swedish sailor and tennis player
* Thorstein Johansen (1888–1963), Norwegian rifle shooter
* Torsten Tegnér (1888–1977), Swedish athlete and journalist
* Torstein Kvamme (1893–1985), Norwegian politician for the Christian Democratic Party
* Thorsten Sellin (1896–1994), American sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, a penologist and scientific criminologist
*Torstein Børte (1899–1985), Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party
*Torstein Selvik (1900–1983), Norwegian politician for the Labour Party
* Thorsten Svensson (1901–1954), Swedish football (soccer) player
*Torstein Olav Kuvaas (1908–1996), Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party
* Thorstein Treholt (1911–1993), Norwegian politician

1914–1945 births

*Thorsten Andersson (1923–2018), Swedish toponymist
* Torstein Eckhoff (1916–1993), Norwegian civil servant, professor of law at the University of Oslo
* Torsten Engberg (1934–2018), Swedish Coastal Artillery lieutenant general
* Þorsteinn Gylfason (1942–2005), Icelandic intellectual
*Torstein Hansen

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