Icelandic surnames

[NeverendingR]

Why do so many Icelandic surnames end with "...Dottir".
I worked with several peoples whos surnames were

Helgad�ttir
J�rgensd�ttir
Simonardottir
Jakobsd�ttir

Is there a special reason for this? Its so cool I was just wondering why. Or is it as simple as how a lot of British names end with 'Son' like Anderson and Johnson

[shaneystar2]

Iceland has an interesting system. Their surnames are their father's first name plus 'son' for a man or 'dottir' for a woman. So if a man called Magnus Magnusson has a daughter her surname is Magnusdottir, and his son would be Magnusson. Their phone book lists people alphabetically by their first 'given' name, not surname. A woman does not change her name on marriage - if she did her name would be telling everyone she was the son of her father-in-law .