City names are important local historical knowledge that can tell us a lot about the past. This is intangible knowledge which in many cases is disappearing as many town names are no longer in use. From 2020 - 2024, over 9700 town names have been registered in Vinje municipality, and Rauland Historielag has been an important part of the work.

From 2020 to 2024, the Rauland history team, along with several others, have participated in a larger project with the aim of collecting town names in Vinje municipality. Altogether, over 9000 names have been registered, which you can now find in the Language Council's town name database. The project has been a collaboration between West Telemark Museum, the history committee in the municipality, the village library committee in Øyfjell and the village committee in Møsstrond.

Many names have been collected in previous collections. In particular, the collections for Aslak Svalastog and Anders Mæland in the 1970s must be highlighted. These have until now been available at the Vinje local history archive. The main work in the project has therefore been to possibly supplement with names and map names on digital maps. On each registration you will find the name, spelling, pronunciation, what it is, informant and who registered the name, in addition to any other information.

From Rauland, Øyfjell and Møsstrond, there are currently around 5600 names registered. Birger Kjelingtveit has been a prime mover in the work and has himself registered over 3300 town names.

The city name project was supported by the Language Council and Vinje Municipality.

Find city names

You can find the town name database on this page. It is a large database. To make searching and work easier Vest Telemark Museum created a user manual which you can use to make the search easier.

Read more about the city name project

You can read more about the town name project in Vest Telemark Blad:

14.07.20202 From Dritholet to Grisengåsen

20.04.2022 Knowledge is disappearing. Now the old town names are being registered

12.05.2024 Birger has placed 3311 town names on the Language Council map