Ulf is a Swedish name that means Wolf. Well, today, wolf in Swedish is varg. Or, sometimes, if you’re old-fashioned enough, ulv. Go back a century or two, and ulv was spelled ulf.
So, yes, Ulf does mean Wolf.
I was born Ulf Ronnquist one snowy night in late October, in one of those northern Swedish towns that are little more than a clearing in the forest.
Fast forward through twenty years in Sweden, ten or so in England, and another twenty-four in the US and you’ll find me in front of an immigrations officer conducting the final citizenship interview, which I passed. Then he asks me, “What name would you like on your passport?”
And I recall what a friend of mine had told me, that you can pick just about any name you want at this point. Then I heard me say “Ulf Wolf.”
That’s how it happened. Scout’s honor.
Of course, I had been using Ulf Wolf as a pen name for some time before this interview, but I hadn’t really planned to adopt that as my official U.S. name. But I did. And ULFWOLF did fit nicely on my California license plate.
Here in Idaho, the license plate reads THEWOLF instead. I’m a bit more generic up here. Or at least my car is.