What Do You Call Someone From Sweden? (Answered!)

Someone from Sweden is called a Swede. Swede is a term for both a person of Swedish nationality and descent. This of course is the simplest sense of someone’s legal citizenship, though the question may be somewhat more complex in terms of ethnic and linguistic identity. Either way, the standard demonym is Swede.

There’s a simple way of looking at it, then, and there is a more complex way.

Swede in its broadest sense is a demonym for a person who is in some way or another from Sweden.

On the other hand, Swede can be an ethnic term specifically for the Nordic group that live in the country.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What is someone from Sweden called?

Someone from Sweden is called a Swede, or they are described as Swedish.

When it comes to someone’s national identity, there are always a few different ways it can be looked at.

We in the modern world have a pretty clear-cut sense of national identity based on citizenship. If you are a citizen of a country, then in some sense or another you are from that country.

People born in Sweden to Swedish parents, naturally, are Swedes.

On the other hand, someone born to Swedish parents outside of Sweden would doubtless consider themselves to be Swedish in some sense.

Further still, a person born and raised in Sweden, regardless of their parentage, is going to feel Swedish to a degree.

All of this, then, is about nationality—but what about ethnic identity?

Swede is both a national and an ethnic identity.

These ethnic Swedes are presumed to descend from what is called the Battle Axe culture, a Bronze Age culture living across Scandinavia and flourishing in the 2^nd Millennium BC.

Ethnically, then, a Swede is a person descended from this line, and many Swedes feel that to be just as important to their identity as their modern, national status in terms of their legal citizenship.

There are other indigenous peoples living in Sweden, though, notably the Sámi.

Their numbers are estimated at around 14-36,000, speaking Sámi languages and who are spread across Norway, Sweden, Finland and small parts of Russia.

Though historically they have been called Laplanders in English, the Sámi find this term offensive today.

There is also a considerable proportion of Finns living in Sweden, around 300,000.

It’s all something of a mixed bag, then; many of these people are legally Swedes but doubtless don’t feel that to be an especially important part of their identity.

Where does the name “Sweden” come from?

It is not known with certainty where the name Sweden comes from, though there is a scholarly consensus.

It’s generally agreed that it derives from the Proto-Indo-European swe, meaning “one’s own”.

In the case of Sweden, this would refer to one’s own tribe that lived in the area.

Sweden in Swedish is called Sverige, which ultimately translates as “realm of the Swedes”.

It is first recorded in English as the modern “Sweden” in the 17^th Century, deriving from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German.

The name, then, is simply taken from the extremely common naming convention of naming the land after the people who live there.

When “tribes” dominated areas, people tended to think of the groups that lived there rather than the other way around—thus, you get Sweden based on the historical name of the tribal, ethnic group that lived there in the early Middle Ages and before.

Is it Swede or Swedish?

Both Swede and Swedish terms describe things of origin in Sweden, it’s just a case of what kind of word you want to use.

“Swede” is a noun, and refers only to a person from Sweden.

You would call a person “a Swede”, and this is generally the more widely accepted way to refer to a person from Sweden.

At the same time, “Swedish” can certainly be used for a person, but this is an adjective rather than a noun.

So, you could describe anything of Swedish origin as “Swedish”.

Whether it was food, clothing, or any kind of manufactured goods, you could call it Swedish.

Again, you could call a person “Swedish”, but not in the noun form.

One important thing to avoid is calling Swedish people “Swiss”—this is a common mixup with the central European country Switzerland.

Where do Swedes live?

Swedes are, also, spread far and wide across the world and it’s important to keep this in mind when considering Swedish identity.

The total Swedish diaspora is estimated to be around 4.5-5 million, and the vast majority of these live in the United States—around 4.3 million.

Many of these are of Swedish ancestry, with only around 29,000 being actual Swedish citizens.

There are also around 341,000 living in Canada, and around 100,000 living in the United Kingdom.

Unsurprisingly, they can also be found across Europe in Norway, France, Germany, Spain and Denmark.

All of this is to point out that Swedish identity endures through generations of living in other countries, and is an important part of international identity.

So, again, there is always more than one way of looking at it.

There is the very general sense of a Swede being a person from Sweden, however that might be the case, through being born to Swedes or born in Sweden.

On the other hand, there is the more complex question of ethnicity and background, which may be more important to any given individual than their legal status and citizenship.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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