Onsøy

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Onsøy is a peninsula and a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway. The administrative centre was Gressvik.

It was created as Onsøy formannskapsdistrikt in 1837. A part of Onsøy with 170 inhabitants was moved to the neighboring municipality Fredrikstad on 1 January 1968.

On 1 January 1994 the rest of Onsøy was incorporated into Fredrikstad. Prior to the merger Onsøy had a population of 12.923.

[edit] The name

The Old Norse form of the name was Óðinsøy. The first element is the genitive case of the name of the god Odin, the last element is øy f 'island'. (The former island was later turned into a peninsula because of post-glacial rebound.)

[edit] References