This very plausible version of the origin of the Ogren name comes to me from (an unrelated) Paul Anders Ogren.  According to him, the Ogren name is fairly new, dating to the early 1800's.

During the very early part of the 19th century (approximately 1805) the King of Sweden was raising an army for participation in the Napoleonic wars.  Because of the similarity in the soldier's names (Johan Johansson, Peter Peterson, Anders Anderson, etc.) , the King or his generals arbitrarily decided to attach new surnames to groups of soldiers in an attempt to tell them apart.  Apparently the Ogren forefathers were with a group of soldiers camped out adjacent to the branch (gren) of a stream (Å), hence the name "Ågren" or "Ogren." 

This page was last edited on 05/09/2004