Why is "Sven" a go-to Norwegian name in movies?

Like, Sven from the original Voltron series and Sven the reindeer from Frozen.

I get that it sounds hyper-Scandinavian and all, but very few people are named Sven in Norway. It sounds weird.

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SW-User

I don’t know any Norwegian names but if I had to guess I’d say Peter is one

NorthernRoses · 26-30, F

@SW-User I think Petter is more normal, but yeah there's an odd Peter here and there

SW-User

@NorthernRoses How about Hans? I had a teacher from Finland with that name if I’m not mistaken

NorthernRoses · 26-30, F

@SW-User Hans [i]used[/i] to be very popular, but has fallen almost entirely out of use in Norway lol. Lots of old historical people named Hans but little to none to meet in Norway.

Hans is the name of Hansel in the Norwegian version of Hansel and Gretel, so

SW-User

@NorthernRoses Interesting. I once heard that Scandinavian languages are pretty close to each other. So can the average Norwegian understand Finnish, Danish or Swedish?

NorthernRoses · 26-30, F

@SW-User Oh yeah, we understand Danish and Swedish with little to no problem! Norwegians can also understand a lot of Icelandic as Icelandic developed from old Norwegian Norse, but it can only be understood with intense focus and multiple repeats.

We can't understand Finnish, though! Finnish has its own little language group that I think is similar to Estonian, but idk. I think they learn Swedish in school, so we can still understand each other enough for them to join the Nordic club