Settlement names ending in abstract nouns
Many farm, house and villa names are formed from endings containing abstract nouns. That is endings like ‑hvile 'rest,' ‑håb 'hope,' ‑ly 'shelter,' ‑lyst 'delight,' ‑minde 'memory,' and ‑ro 'tranquility.' This type of settlement names arose in Denmark in the 17th and 18th century inspired by a similar name use in other European countries, and names like these where formed well into the 20th century. The most common abstract ending is ‑minde 'memory,' which is often combined with personal names, e.g. Annasminde 'in memory of Anna' and Knudsminde 'in memory of Knud.'
Pitfalls
This overview of the most important Danish settlement names, provides a tool to place names in time. For instance it is now possible to ascertain that Hvessinge must be hundreds of years older than Glostrup although Hvessinge actually is a part of Glostup today.
However, many place names have a form in present time that does not immediately reveal from which words the name was originally formed. Some of these corrupt names look like other name types, and some have passed through independent changes. By examining the oldest written sources, it is often possible to see from which endings those names were formed originally.
Examples of this are Grænge on Lolland, which is an inge-name, and Klinting in Vestern Jutland, which is an um-name. Further to that Maglemer on Lolland is a tved-name, Gislev on Funen is originally formed from one word, and Græsted in Northern Zealand originally ended in ‑holt. In other words, a place name is never sure to consist of the words immediately obvious from the present day spelling.