In this paper, designations of origin referring to persons living in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1483 to 1492
are analysed. They indicate that the individuals so designated mainly came from Finland (then a part of
Sweden), Denmark and a few Swedish provinces. It is clear that the vast majority of immigrants to the city
were not known by designations of origin, and that the designations used were hardly representative in
terms of the origins of the immigrants at large. As reasons for this lack of representativeness, perceptions of
various regions and groups and the respective places held by the designations of origin in a lexicon or
onomasticon are proposed.