r/Norway • u/Puzzleheaded_Fuel787 • 7d ago

Language Surnames that end with "Stad"

Watching a bunch of Anne Bjørnstad shows and I'm on Beforiegners now. I've noticed alot of the crew have "Stad" at the end of their names. Google says it means "place". Is that true. So would she be "Bearplace"?

Lots of 'Dottirs" as well but that one I understand.

Any assistance with this would be greatly appreciated. I love her shows and reading all the interesting surnames between them. Thank you in advance for any assistance.

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u/et_sted_ved_fjorden 7d ago

About surnames in Norway historically. People were named after their father: Olsen is the son of Ole, Olsdatter is the daughter of Ole. In addition they used the name of the farm where they lived. Ole Olsen Vik was thus he son of Ole and lived on the farm Vik. When surnames became inherited names (by law in 1924, but for many a bit before that) people either kept the farm named or the patronym.

So Anne Bjørnstad probably has ancestors who around 1900 lived on the farm Bjørnstad. And Per Hansen has an ancestor named Hans.

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u/Puzzleheaded_Fuel787 7d ago

That's so neat. Alot of different countries peoples have done that and started modernizing them later on. I'm really enjoying this thread learning from you all. Thank you.

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u/FlaviusStilicho 6d ago

It’s also interesting that you can read (to some degree) what kind of farm it was… there is a bit of a hierarchy at play you can decipher from the name… a good example is our national team football captain.. Martin Ødegård. His last name literally means “Abandoned Farm” … more specifically it relates to a farm of poor quality that was abandoned during the population decline after the Black Death. Population took 300 years to rebound… so for a very long time these farms were just not in use as farms… when people eventually started clearing them again, they had already been given that name.