r/Norway • u/Puzzleheaded_Fuel787 • 10d 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/Puzzleheaded_Fuel787 10d ago

They use these names in the realms alot, don't they?

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u/snoozieboi 10d ago

The cool thing about Ødegård is that (unless I have been told wrong) Øde = abandoned/desolate and it comes from the black death times when so many farms were abandoned.

Think about it, people were dying all around and we had no clue about how it spread. This is also why doctors had these crazy masks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plague_doctor_costume

I believe some were open at the bottom, because they didn't know about germs and viruses, they thought the disease spread through smell and thus used strongly smelling things inside their mask.

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u/Tilladarling 10d ago edited 9d ago

Yep, Ødegård and Øygard both have that meaning and many of these farms were left abandoned after the black plague. Either because their owners died, or because the survivors left them in favor of better farms where all the original inhabitants had died and so the survivors moved up in the world. Not all Ødegård names are that old, however. My great-grandfather bought an abandoned farm that had been standing empty for about 50 years in the 1800’s. He took the name Ødegård after he bought the farm. In his case, I believe the home was left abandoned because the owners emigrated to Australia

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u/Spargimorbo 9d ago

With my background from Hordaland I always thought Øygard referred to a barrier of islands protecting the coast, like the Øygarden west of Bergen. Until I visited the cemetery at Lom and found all kinds variations of the name, which given the location could not possibly mean what I had thought it meant but rather referred to an abandoned farm with various spellings. Thanks Lom - travel and learn!