View Message

It is a swedish surname, spelled Bönström in Swedish.

I checked the Emigranten D with about 1 million emigrants fron Sweden. There are 20 Bönström, all from Värmland. A couple of them went to Norway (possibly to travel via Kristiania/Oslo) and the rest went to North America.

I've never heard or seen anything like Bönström or Bonström. The problem with names like that is that you don't know if it was an O or an Ö in the beginning. Bön can mean prayer just as Sara Mae suggested but it can also mean 'bean'. Still it's odd because ström is usually put together with another nature name.

ETA: According to Statistics Sweden 154 have the surname Bönström in Sweden. Bonström doesn't exist so it was probably spelt like Bönström in the beginning.

This message was edited 1/6/2008, 9:31 AM

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking but Bön is Swedish for prayer and Ström is Swedish for stream.

It's Swedish.