The family name change to Knausgaard accompanied the brothers’ entry into academia

Evidence

Bodil, she must be the daughter of dad’s father’s second brother, whom I had never met. For some reason he had been banished from the family, long ago. I heard about him by chance for the first time a couple of years ago; there was a wedding in the family, and mum mentioned that he was also there, and that he made a passionate speech. He was a lay preacher at the Pentecostal church in town. A mechanic. Everything about him was different from his two brothers, even the name. When they, after consultation with their imposing mother, and upon entering the academic world and university, had decided to change their name from the standard Pedersen to the rather less standard Knausgaard, he had refused. Perhaps that is what caused the break? — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1033

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book title ‘A Death in the Family’ and the autobiographical self-naming; also to the author’s broader project of the name as identity.
• QUESTION: Whether the name change caused the family break is left open and would be worth chasing in later chapters.