Place names types and their distribution – what do they signify?

Abstract

This article is a work-in-progress detailing how the digitization of the central Norwegian settlement name source, Norske Gaardnavne by Oluf Rygh can be used in advancing place name research and spread the results to other research fields. The new digital Norske Gaardnavne was launched in the autumn 2021 together with other place name resources in a new place name portal.

Norske Gaardnavne was digitized around the turn of the millennium, and has recently been updated and coordinates provided to the place names listed in the 19 volumes published from 1897 to 1936. To illustrate the potential in the new digital Norske Gaardnavne, these place name datasets are used to make distribution maps to show period-specific distributions of settlement names and distributions of typologically similar place name types. This enables the reader to gain a quick overview of certain place name type concentrations and even possibly get insight into the times when certain areas experienced major transformations in settlement organization at a national, regional or local level.

Considerations as to what settlement name type distributions signify and the reasons for their distribution concentrations are also touched upon and viewed from a temporal perspective. Comparisons with similar place name types in Denmark and Sweden are also made.