Place names

Norwegian Farm Names

O. Rygh’s collection, "Norwegian Farm Names" (Norske Gaardsnavne) consists of 18 volumes, one for each of the Norwegian counties. It contains information about all Norwegian farms and some of their subunits, amounting to a total of 55000 entries. The names are organized according to districts and by consecutive, increasing farm registration numbers.

The electronic version of this collection ("Elektroniske Norske Gaardsnavne") is being created with support from the Norwegian Research Council and from the following counties: Østfold, Vestfold, Akershus, Rogaland, Hordaland, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Sør-Trøndelag and Nord-Trøndelag. More information on "Norske Gaardsnavne".
Responsible for this project section: Associate Professor Tom Schmidt, Section for Place Name Studies, Department of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Oslo. Contact person for this project section (Names): Morten Holtet.
IT manager: Christian-Emil Ore, c.e.ore@dokpro.uio.no.

The Land Register Draft of 1950 (Matrikkelutkastet fra 1950)

The Norwegian Finance Department has compiled approximately 85000 lists of real estate in Norway, organized by consecutive, increasing farm numbers within each municipality. The revision of the land register was never completed, and since Finnmark county is not included in the lists, they are referred to as a draft.

In addition to farm names, the draft includes the names of private homes, vacation homes, lots, public and private institutions, etc. The land register draft is an important tool for the State Name-Consultancy Service (Statens navnekonsulenttjeneste) in its efforts to standardize place names. Since it also includes the names of the owners of all the listed properties, it can also be of use to researchers studying names of people. In fact, it is often the only accessible comprehensive source of names for newer properties.
Responsible for this project section: Associate Professor Tom Schmidt, Section for Place Name Studies, Department of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Oslo.
Contact person for this project section: Morten Holtet.
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt.

The Home Name Register (Bustadnavnregisteret)

This register, found in the Section for the Study of Names at the University of Oslo, includes the names of homes (farms, their subunits and summer pastures) from ten of Norway’s counties. The names are organized by consecutive, increasing farm numbers within each district. The register includes 109000 archive cards which provide information on the spelling of the name, its pronunciation, correct preposition and dative form of the name, older versions of the spelling, and variations in spelling and pronunciation. They will often include comments on topography, peculiarities of dialect, and the interpretation of the name.
More information on the Bustadnavnregisteret is available here..
Responsible for this project section: Associate Professor Tom Schmidt, Section for Name Research, Department of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Oslo. Contact person for this project section: Morten Holtet.
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt, l.j.tvedt@dokpro.uio.no.

The Place Name Archives at the University of Tromsø

The North Norway Archives of Dialects at the Department of Language and Literature, University of Tromsø, includes records of Norwegian place names as well as collections of Saami and Finnish place names. A significant part of the material was collected locally in recent times, but it also includes copies of older collections from other institutions. The size of the collection is estimated at one million names. In the process of selecting material for digital conversion, certain guidelines have been developed for determining priorities.
Responsible for this project section: Eira Söderholm, Institutt for språk og litteratur, UiTø
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt, l.j.tvedt@dokpro.uio.no.

Audio recordings at the University of Tromsø

Responsible for this project section: Eira Söderholm, Department of Language and Literature, University of Tromsø
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt.

Writings by school children from Nordland and Troms counties (the Indrebø material)

This database includes approximately 100000 names of places in North Norway which were found in Indrebø’s collection of writings by school children.
Responsible for this project section: Eira Söderholm, Department of Language and Literature, University of Tromsø
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt.

Literature list, the Etymology register in Uppsala, Sweden

The largest collection of place names in the Nordic countries is found in the Ortnams Archives in Uppsala. It consists of approximately 240000 archive cards, a number which is constantly increasing as new material is being excerpted. The register includes Nordic names and name elements with literature references. The archives are not yet accessible by the public. While the material is being digitized, a separate list is being compiled over all the literature referred to in the archive. More information about the Etymology register is available here..
Responsible for this project section: Associate professor Tom Schmidt, Section for Name Research, Department of Scandinavian Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Oslo. Contact person for this project section: Morten Holtet.
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt.

The Place-Name Database (demo)

This is a temporary version of a place-name database.
IT manager: Lars Jørgen Tvedt.


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Updated 19 June, 1998 by Andreas Østby