Origin & History

Nature surname meaning 'linden twig' or 'linden branch', composed of the Swedish 'lind' (linden tree) and 'qvist' or 'kvist' (twig, branch, bough). The spelling with 'q' rather than 'k' reflects an older Swedish orthographic convention that was common in surnames adopted before the standardisation of Swedish spelling in the twentieth century. The '-qvist' or '-kvist' element appears in many Swedish nature surnames, including Lindkvist, Bjorkqvist, and Palmqvist. Lindqvist is broadly distributed across Sweden with a slight concentration in the Stockholm metropolitan region.