Hå

Hå is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the southernmost municipality in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Varhaug. Other villages in Hå include Brusand, Hæen, Nærbø, Obrestad, Ogna, Sirevåg, and Vigrestad. The municipality is the 281st largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Hå is the 67th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 19,296. The municipality's population density is and its population has increased by 11.9% over the previous 10-year period. The parish of Haa was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1894, the municipality of Haa was dissolved and divided into two new municipalities: Nærbø (population: 1,806) and Varhaug (population: 1,801). During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the municipality of Hå was recreated by merging of the neighboring municipalities of Nærbø (population: 3,926), Varhaug (population: 3,454), and Ogna (population: 1,470). In local politics, the divisions between the three previous municipalities remain very visible. The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Hå farm (Háar or Háir) where the local church priest's parsonage was located. The river running past this farm is similarly named the Hååna, meaning the "Hå river". It is not known if the river is named after the farm or vice versa. The meaning of the original name is uncertain. It is possible that it comes from the plural dative case of the word há which means "aftergrass" (the grass that grows after the first crop has been cut down). Ti may also come from the word hár which means "rowlock" (possibly referring to the shape of the headland on which the farm is located). Prior to the 1917 Norwegian language reform law, the name was spelled Haa with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the letter å was used instead. The coat of arms was granted on 5 July 1991.