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They come form the Old Saxon, generally originating in the province of Holstein in northern Germany. The "stedt" comes from older words like stede that generally meant a settlement or place where the Old Saxons had a village. For example, the surname Bostedt comes from a village called Boostedt that meant a Saxon settlement by the birch trees.

It would be "town" as in "hometown", "hometown" = "hjemsted" in Norwegian. It's probably of a town that is still in existence or a town that used to exist when the name was taken.

Grufstedt is Swedish and Knackstedt is German but -stedt has a completely different origin in the two names. The first one is a cognate of English stead 'place' while Knackstedt is an alteration of Knacksterdt which contains Low German stert 'tail'.