The History & Meaning
of the Name "Pensgard"

In Norway, in the days of yor, the common people were given a first name and then a name that only linked them to their father. For example, Lief Ericson, the most famous Norwegian, was the son of Eric the Red... thus he was called "Eric's Son" = Ericson. At some point this became impractical and the practice of taking a permanent family name following the paternal line began. As a result, many family names only go back a few generations before the old system begins to dominate the names.

The question for parents who lived during the transitional period was, "what name do we use for the permanent family name?" They had to choose a name for their family after abandoning the old naming system. To solve this problem, many Norwegians chose to take the name of their farm. Or rather, they started giving names to their children that reflected the family's current location. Oddly enough, it seems that none of this was done with strict regularity. Sometimes, this resulted in brothers and sisters with different last names within the same family.

In addition to the above, both systems were used for a few generations. Not only was the new family name was used as a last name for some children, but the father's name was often retained in the form of a middle name. For example, the earliest known Pensgard was Jens Johnsen (Pinskar/ Pensgard/ Pensgaard) born in 1814/15. His father's name was John due to the middle name (Johnsen = John's Son). This Jens (pronounced like "Yence"), had 5 siblings but none of the others bore the last name of Pensgard.

The name "Pensgard," itself, is a farm name. Thus, the Pensgard heritage is not only genetic and familial, but also geographical. The exact location of the farm is given on the genealogy page along with several maps. The name means "Beautiful Farm"; "Pens" means beautiful and "Gard" means farm. "Gard" is related to the English term "yard," but denotes a homestead, field, or contiguous piece of land. Thus, the English term seems to have a size-limiting connotation that "gard" doesn't have. 

My friend and relative (second cousin once removed) Torgrim Pensgard Eide has done some research into the family name and has translated some of the public records for me. The following is a section on the name and its origins:

"The first that settled at one of the five cotter´s farm that was pioneered at the south oriented part of the farm at Sørvågen [Sorvagen] was probably John Baarsen [and his wife] Karen Jensdotter. They came probably before 1815 from Vikedal Prestesogn. The cotter´s farm they pioneered was called 'Pensgard'. There is some doubt about the name as some think it was 'Pinskar' and that the name is due to a narrow gap between two hills close to where the houses were raised, and that the southeast wind was forced between ('pine'), and thereby called 'Pinskar'. Daniel Kallevik (Gardshistorie for Stegabergkrinsen) thinks that it is very reasonable that John and Kari [nickname for Karen] gave the place the name 'Pensgard' because it was actually very nice ("pens") here. Their relatives in Haugesund write the name either 'Pensgård' [Pensgard] or 'Pensgaard'."
(Note: the paragraph above contains special characters that might not come through correctly on your computer. I've added the non-special replacements in brackets after the word Torgrim typed. Additionally, some typos were fixed.)

Before moving to the Pensgard farm, the family of the paternal line came from the areas shown on the following map:

See Also: Pronunciation of the name "Pensgard" || Meaning of the name "David"

Note: The image at the top right of this page is not the real coat of arms for the family name... there probably isn't one since this name is not of royal descent.