Norway in America - Foreword

By Hallvard Slettebø

Norwegian immigrants went to North America primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are today around 5 million Norwegian Americans; most live in the U.S. Upper Midwest.

Types of Norwegian place-names in America include:

Named after Norway.
Old Norse names.
Named after Norwegian place-names.
Named after famous Norwegians.
Named after Norwegian immigrants.
Named by Norwegian immigrants.

Norwegian immigrants created communities with Norwegian names, and many of these had post offices.

This overview is the result of 20 years research into post offices with Norwegian names, common Norse names, or Scandinavian names. For each place name, the Norwegian connection is explained. Post office information generally includes location (township and county) and years of operation. Name of first postmaster is also included, and often there is a connection between the postmaster and the post office name.

Many post officed were established in the period 1880 to 1910.
More than 700 post offices in the United States and more than 50 in Canada with confirmed Norwegian names
In addition, 80 uncertain names (probably a good proportion of these are Norwegian)
Plus, an unknown number of unidentified names
In operation from a few months to more than 200 years
Many small post offices were superseded by Rural Free Delivery 1900-1920

Please get in touch via email to hallvard@slettebo.no if you have questions, comments or corrections.

Abbreviations State abbreviations are not included in this list.
b.	born
Co.	County
CPO	Community Post Office
d.	died
NB	Norvegiana Nyhetsbrev
NFT	Norsk Filatelistisk Tidsskrift
NN	Norvegiana-Nytt
OFK	Oslo Filatelistklubb
Pm	Postmaster
P.o.	Post office
R.D.	Rural Delivery
R.F.D.	Rural Free Delivery
R.P.O.	Railway Post Office
Twp.	Township

Index Previous Next Home

Coloured line