Ormseth
Any idea where Ormseth originated? And what it means?
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Ormseth is Norwegian but I don't know the etymology.
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If it's from the locality name Ormset, it just means "Orm's residence (literally seat)". Orm is a serpent (English worm) but also (in he form of a dragon) a totemic animal used as a name element. seþ appears to be a regular variant of set.

This message was edited 3/16/2020, 7:46 AM

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Ormset is a place name in Norway, where there are two Ormsets. Ormseth may be a variant.
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The Geonames website has only three farms by that name (see tinyurl.com/r87nbhy). Have you found a source that says it's an actual placename?
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The two farms in the More og Romsdal district are the Ormsets in my gazetteer. They are marked on the map only as settlements with less than 500 inhabitants.
Before compulsory adoption of permanent surnames in Norway (1925?), many families were known by the names of their farms. Maybe some retained these names as hereditary surnames instead of the more common patronymic type. It's said that a majority of the country's population lived on farms at the time.
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