๐ How Rare Are You in Sweden?
๐ธ๐ช Genetic Landscape of Sweden
Sweden has one of the highest concentrations of light-featured people on the planet โ nearly 78% have blue, green, or gray eyes, and over a third are natural blondes. The Viking Age left a strong genetic imprint, and Sweden's relative geographic isolation preserved these traits. However, modern immigration from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia has begun to shift Sweden's genetic profile. A+ blood type dominates at 37%, making O- (7%) one of Sweden's genuinely rare traits.
Swedish surnames tell a different story from Swedish eyes. The most common ones โ Andersson, Johansson, Karlsson โ are frozen patronymics, each a record of some ancestor's father's name from the generation when names stopped changing with every birth and became fixed, early in the twentieth century. That is why a small set of names covers so much of the population, and why the ornamental surnames built from nature words, Lindberg or Sjรถstrรถm among them, feel comparatively distinctive. The country is also less uniform than it looks from outside. Sรกpmi, the Sรกmi homeland, reaches across the far north with its own languages and reindeer-herding economy, and the Torne Valley along the Finnish border speaks Meรคnkieli. Both, with Finnish, Romani and Yiddish, are recognised national minority languages rather than regional dialects.
๐ข Sweden Sets “Common” at 2,000 Bearers
Sweden has put a rarity threshold into statute. Section 16 of the Personal Names Act (Lag 2016:1013 om personnamn), in force since 1 July 2017, says a person may change to a surname that is lagligen bรคrs av minst 2 000 personer — legally borne by at least 2,000 people. The Swedish Tax Agency treats names above that line as the country’s most common ones and says vem som helst kan ansรถka — anyone can apply — to change to one of them. It publishes the list you can search, and it runs to roughly 500 names.
An application costs 1,800 kronor, unless the name is already borne by a parent or a spouse, in which case it is free. It is a literal version of what a name rarity check estimates elsewhere: a Swedish surname is officially common at a specific integer, and 1,999 bearers is on the other side of it.
๐๏ธ Eye Color
| Blue | 68% |
| Green | 10% |
| Gray | 8% |
| Hazel | 8% |
| Brown | 6% |
๐ Hair Color
| Blonde | 35% |
| Brown | 25% |
| Dark Brown | 20% |
| Red | 4% |
| Black | 8% |
| Gray | 8% |
๐ฉธ Blood Type
| A+ | 37% |
| O+ | 32% |
| B+ | 8% |
| AB+ | 4% |
| A- | 7% |
| O- | 7% |
| B- | 3% |
| AB- | 2% |
Trait frequencies on this page come from public and institutional datasets โ see Data Sources.
🧮 Calculate Your Rarity in Sweden
Pick your eye colour, hair colour and blood type. The calculator uses Sweden's own figures from the tables above, not world averages.
This is an estimate, not a measurement. It multiplies three national frequencies as if they were independent, and they are not: eye and hair colour share pigmentation genes, so a combination that tends to run together, such as blue eyes with blonde hair, is more common than the multiplication suggests, while one that rarely does, such as blue eyes with black hair, is rarer. Blood type is independent of both. The frequencies are national averages from public datasets — see Data Sources.
That number describes the body you were born with. Fraeon, our other site, does the same arithmetic for the part you chose: the films, series, games, books, anime and manga you have actually finished. Start your log →
๐ The -son Ending Was Never Closed
The usual account treats Swedish surnames as fossils: Andersson, Johansson and Karlsson each record some ancestor’s father, left over from a time when the name was rebuilt every generation. Isof, the government institute for language and folklore, says that practice was delvis levande en bit in pรฅ 1900-talet — partly alive some way into the 1900s. What the fossil account misses is that the mechanism was never closed. Section 4 of the Personal Names Act lets a newborn be registered with a surname bildat av nรฅgot av fรถrรคldrarnas fรถrnamn med tillรคgg av nรฅgon av รคndelserna -son eller -dotter — formed from either parent’s given name plus -son or -dotter.
Either parent: a child of a Karin can be registered Karinsson or Karinsdotter. Isof confirms today’s law allows a patronymic or metronymic as a surname, and uses those examples. The application is due within three months of the birth; with none, the child takes the surname of the parent who gave birth. Isof also notes that the -son surnames in circulation reflect the male given names that were common in the 1800s.
๐๏ธ Who Counts Swedish Names Since 2024
If you want to know how many people in Sweden share your name, the answer moved house in 2024. Statistics Sweden had produced name statistics for years and stopped: Frรฅn och med 2024 slutar vi producera namnstatistik — from 2024 we stop producing name statistics — with the explanation that it chose to prioritise producing other statistics. The page now points readers to Skatteverket, the Tax Agency, which carries the lookups instead.
So a Swedish name count is a population-register query now, not a statistical publication. Skatteverket’s search reports how many registered people hold a given first or last name, matched on the exact spelling you type and refreshed once a week — a variant spelling is a different name and is not included. Nothing comparable exists for the traits in the tables above, which is a real difference in what the country records about a person; see Data Sources.
โญ Rare Facts About Sweden
Where the Swedish numbers come from
Population: Statistics Sweden’s population statistics (BE0101), which put Sweden at 10,613,531 for July 2026. The name rules above are quoted from the Personal Names Act (2016:1013) and from the Skatteverket and Isof pages behind it. Blood: GeBlod publishes one national figure, about 85 per cent RhD positive, and no ABO breakdown for Sweden, so the A+/O+ split above is an estimate. The eye, hair and height figures are estimates too, not official Swedish statistics. Last checked September 2026.