Yeah, I suppose I should explain myself. I know this’ll get long, so I apologize as I put this under a read more. These are my personal views, and other people obviously feel differently.

Bondevik isn’t a common surname. And more notably, there is a politician (previous prime minister or something I think) with the same surname, and is rather problematic? (I recall something about wanting to ban same sex marriages and make abortions harder to get). At the very least, from my understanding, he isn’t liked much. While I know some Norwegians have stated they don’t really mind Bondevik being used for Norway’s surname, other’s have stated they find it a bit offensive. I know caffinatedstory has an entire tag dedicated to such subjects if you want a better explanation, and she is Norwegian.

While I’m a little more lenient on this point, Lukas is a more modern name. For a country that’s been around for centuries, why on earth would he have a name like this? Sure, I suppose if you reasoned that countries might change names after a while, it would be reasonable. But there are other names that could be used.

Here’s what really gets to me, and is just based on my experience. There are people out there that refuse to acknowledge that there are other suggested names for Norway other than Lukas Bondevik, or only use it because it’s the popular one. I was once beta reading someone’s work, and I suggested they try another name for Norway. They told me, “But Lukas is popular, and if I don’t use it, it [the fic] won’t be received well.”

I have been told before, ‘You’re using the wrong name for Norway. I won’t RP with you.’– and in that situation, I had been using Sigurd, which is one of the names Himaruya gave for Norway. [For reference, the entire list is: Lukas Bondevik, Børre Thomassen, Bjørn, Kjetil, Knut, and Sigurd as names he liked for Norway; although I think at some point Thomassen was removed from the list.]

And that’s why this is such a pet peeve of mine.