Tonstad

Tonstad herred
—  Former Municipality  —
Coordinates:
Country Norway
County Vest-Agder
District Sørlandet
Municipality ID NO-1046
Adm. Center Tonstad
Area[1]
 • Total 361 km2 (139.4 sq mi)
Split from Sirdal in 1905
Merged into Sirdal in 1960

Tonstad is the administrative centre of the municipality of Sirdal in Vest-Agder, Norway. In 2005, its population was 751. It is also a former municipality that is located along the Sirdalsvatnet in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Sirdal.

Contents

Name

The municipality of Tonstad was named after the old Tonstad farm (Old Norse: Þornýjarstaðir ), since the church is located there. The first element of the name comes from the female name Tone (Old Norse: Þorný) and the last element is staðir which means "homestead" or "farm".[2]

History

The municipality of Tonstad was established on 1 January 1905 when the old municipality of Sirdal was divided into two municipalities: Tonstad (population: 828) and Øvre Sirdal (population: 753). On 1 January 1960, Tonstad (population: 651) was merged together with Øvre Sirdal and the Øksendal area of Bakke to form a new municipality of Sirdal.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Tonstad – kommune" (in Norwegian). Store norske leksikon. http://www.snl.no/Tonstad/kommune. Retrieved 2009-11-19. 
  2. ^ Rygh, Oluf (1912) (in Norwegian). Norske gaardnavne: Lister og Mandals amt (9 ed.). Kristiania, Norge: W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri. pp. 348. http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_bla.prl?enhid=152568&avid=34416&s=n. 
  3. ^ Jukvam, Dag (1999) (in Norwegian) (PDF). Historisk oversikt over endringer i kommune- og fylkesinndelingen. Statistisk sentralbyrå. http://www.ssb.no/emner/00/90/rapp_9913/rapp_9913.pdf. 

External links