Anders is a
name in
Scandinavian
languages, the equivalent of the Greek
Andreas ("manly")
and the English
Andrew. Anders is
the German word for different.
In
Sweden, Anders has
been one of the most common names for many centuries. According to
Statistics
Sweden, as of
December 31,
2002, it ranks
4th among the male names. The great frequency of this name at the
point in time (around 1900) when
patronymics were converted
into
family names
is the reason why 1 out of every 30 Swedes today are called
Andersson.
The
namesday
of Anders in the Scandinavian calendar is
November 30,
and in the old peasant superstition that day was important for
determining what the
Christmas weather
would be. If it was very cold on
November 30,
there would be much sleet on Christmas (and vice versa).
The equivalent of Anders in
Basque is
Ander, which is also a very common name.
anders in Danish: Anders
anders in German: Anders (Vorname)
anders in French: Anders
anders in Icelandic: Anders
anders in Low German: Drewes
anders in Norwegian Nynorsk: Anders
anders in Swedish: Anders
anders in Chinese: 安德斯