Norske Gaardnavne (Oluf Rygh): the old master key to Norwegian farm names
If you do Norwegian genealogy for any length of time, you’ll meet the same problem again and again: the place is there in the record, but the spelling is… creative. Norske Gaardnavne (Oluf Rygh): the old master key to Norwegian farm names, is an indispensable resource for untangling these tricky place names.
Gothic handwriting doesn’t help, and neither does the fact that farm names often shifted spelling over the centuries. One of the most dependable ways to steady your footing is to consult Oluf Rygh’s Norske Gaardnavne (“Norwegian farm names”), a standard reference that follows farm names historically and often explains pronunciation, older spellings, and likely meaning. Norske Gaardnavne (Oluf Rygh): the old master key to Norwegian farm names is invaluable for anyone doing serious research on Norwegian genealogy.
I have written about Oluf Rygh’s Norske Gaardnavne (Norwegian farm names) before, but as this is such a valuable resource, I wanted to single it out in a separate article to be easy to find and bookmark.
By hovering your mouse over the pictures in this article, you can enlarge them.
What is Norske Gaardnavne?
Norske Gaardnavne was published across multiple volumes, with the main series commonly described as appearing from 1897 to 1924, and organized largely by the old county units (“amt”). (Antonsen, n.d.; Norske Gaardnavne, 2024; Norske Gaardnavne, 2025) It grew out of work on revising the land register (matrikkel), during which the commission gathered older written name forms and local pronunciations to improve consistency and correctness in official usage. (Antonsen, n.d.; Norske Gaardnavne, 2024)
What makes Rygh so useful for genealogists is that it doesn’t just give a “modern” spelling—it often gives you a trail of historical forms so you can recognize the same farm when it appears in records with very different spelling habits. (Antonsen, n.d.)
Why is Norske Gaardnavne the master key to Norwegian farm names
In everyday research, Rygh helps you:
confirm a hard-to-read farm name by matching it to known farms in the correct parish area
recognize older spellings that don’t look like modern forms
separate look-alike names that can fool you when several farms share similar patterns
remember that older sources often use “Aa” where modern Norwegian uses “Å” (Eidhammer, 2018)
These are not theoretical benefits—this is exactly the kind of checking that turns “a plausible guess” into something you can defend in a case write-up. (Eidhammer, 2018)
Using the online searchable version (and keeping the same image positions)
A very practical way to work is the slow, careful method: start with the record, identify the parish, then compare what you see to the farm list for that parish. (Eidhammer, 2018)
1) Start with the record and identify the parish
You need the parish (or a strong, evidence-based guess). Without it, you’re gambling. (Eidhammer, 2018) For this article I picked at random a parish where I am not familiar with the farm names. Here is the heading of the church record:
Quick link: https://media.digitalarkivet.no/en/kb20061020010441
2) Go to the Rygh search page and begin typing the parish name
Your original method is simple and effective: type the parish name and use the drop-down help to select the right one—especially important when parish names can be similar or repeated. (Eidhammer, 2018)
3) Browse the farm list for that parish
Once you’ve chosen the parish, you get a list of farms connected to it—an excellent way to check uncertain handwriting against a known set of names. (Eidhammer, 2018)
4) Compare the record’s spelling to the list, then open candidates
This is the moment where Rygh shines: you compare the record’s spelling to the parish list, and for close-but-not-quite matches you can often open entries to see variant historical spellings that explain the discrepancy (see also below). (Eidhammer, 2018; Antonsen, n.d.) Here is a screenshot from the church record I linked in the beginning of the article.
I have put in some numbered boxes. If we compare the names in the record with the farm names in “Norwegian farm names” we see that
- “Nordre Kaaen” must be what Rygh lists as Kaan nordre.
- “Mellebye” → Melleby (søndre)
- “Klepper” is hard to read, but helped by Rygh we recognise the name as Klepper
- “Fladberg” → Flatberg
- “Siølerud” must be Skjølerud
If we, like in example no. 5, find a name that is spelled somewhat similar, but not quite, we can check the box in front of the name, click the “Show” button. This brings up a list of different spellings of the farm name, found in various sources.
What you’ll typically find in a Rygh entry
Depending on the farm and the available sources, entries can include:
a main form used for the work
local pronunciation and/or notes on spoken form
older written spellings from different periods
discussion of meaning/origin (etymology) when evidence allows (Antonsen, n.d.; Norske Gaardnavne, 2024)
That combination—spoken tradition plus older written forms—is what makes Rygh so steady as a reference when you’re dealing with shifting spellings in historical records. (Antonsen, n.d.; Norske Gaardnavne, 2024)
A few cautions (the sensible, traditional ones)
The technique is strong, but it isn’t magic:
Some parish names and farm forms were spelled differently “back then,” so you must stay alert. (Eidhammer, 2018)
You may meet places that are not matrikkel farms (small holdings, cotter places, later names), and they may not appear the way you expect. (Eidhammer, 2018)
Parishes can share names, so confirm you’re in the right place before you decide. (Eidhammer, 2018)
- The English version of the database has been a little unstable. At the time of this writing, it seems to be working fine. If you do have problems, just change to the Norwegian version. You can use the translate function in your web browser and easily use this version.
How to access the work
Oluf Rygh’s work Norwegian farm names are available through several sources. The best way to access it is, in my opinion, through the “Dokumentasjonsprosjektet” hosted by the University in Oslo found at https://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_form.html
If you have comments or questions, comment below or send me a message through the Contact page.
References
Antonsen, L. (n.d.). Norske Gaardnavne. Store norske leksikon. Retrieved January 23, 2026, from https://snl.no/Norske_Gaardnavne
Digitalarkivet. (2013, October 31). Register over gårdsnavn i Hordaland og Sogn og Fjordane fra O. Rygh (KildeID: 100018). Retrieved January 23, 2026, from https://www.digitalarkivet.no/source/100018
Eidhammer, M. R. (2018, February 1). How to decipher Norwegian farm names. Norwegian Genealogy and then some. Retrieved January 23, 2026, from https://martinroe.com/blog/how-to-decipher-norwegian-farm-names/
Norske Gaardnavne. (2024, March 7). Lokalhistoriewiki.no. Retrieved January 23, 2026, from https://lokalhistoriewiki.no/Norske_Gaardnavne
Norske Gaardnavne. (2025, March 23). Slektshistoriewiki. Retrieved January 23, 2026, from https://www.genealogi.no/wiki/index.php/Norske_Gaardnavne
Project Runeberg. (2015, May 28). Norske Gaardnavne. Oplysninger samlade til brug ved Matrikelens Revision. Retrieved January 23, 2026, from https://runeberg.org/ngardnavne/
