Egennamnets

Egennamnets is the genitive form of the Swedish noun egennamn, which denotes a proper name. A proper name refers to a unique entity such as a person, place, or organization, used to identify it without description of its general class. The term egennamn itself is a compound of egen meaning “own” and namn meaning “name,” and it is used in linguistic and onomastic discussions to distinguish proper names from common nouns.

In Swedish, egennamn can appear in different inflected forms: the indefinite form is egennamn; the definite form is egennamnet; and the genitive/possessive form is egennamnets. The egennamnets form is used when attributing something to the proper name, as in phrases like egennamnets betydelse (“the meaning of the proper name”) or egennamnets ortsklingande identitet (“the proper name’s locally resonant identity”). The definite and genitive forms are most commonly encountered in written and formal registers and in linguistic analysis.

The use of egennamnets is primarily functional: it marks possession or association with a specific proper name, rather than indicating a general category. This fits within broader Swedish practices for handling names and determiners, where definite and possessive forms interact with the definite article to produce precise references.

See also: Proper name, Onomastics, Swedish grammar, Definite form, Genitive case.