Why Lopt was called ‘Laufeyjarson’
Indeed: old Scandinavian peoples didn’t bear their mother’s name, as Lopt does, but their father’s. So why would a matronymic be attributed when it came to him? First of all, his father is still a baffling case today. Even scholars of traditional norse paganism and its history can’t seem to put their finger on his identity, although he is known to be a Jotun, bearing the name Farbauti. However, Lopt’s mother is widely accepted as being Laufey, an ásynjur- whom we also know very little about. She is speculated to be a giant yet still, due to her status as part of the Æsir, she may have given her name to Lopt when he joined the Æsir through a blood pact with Ódinn. This way, Lopt would be accepted among the Æsir as ‘the son of Laufey’, a title that made for sense for the Gods to remember, as they were already acquainted with his mother.
It may be that it is an issue of caste, there was a case where a Norseman used to be ashamed of being born of an Irish slave till he learned his mother was a princess which reversed his opinion heavily. It could be that Lopt’s mother status is higher then that of his father
