Hva betyr navnet?
Per. 1.1. 2013 er det 53 personer i Norge som har Røvang som etternavn.
I Nord-Amerika finnes det mer enn 200 personer som benytter den amerikanske utgaven; Rovang.
Som så mange andre etternavn i Norge er Røvang et gårdsnavn. Navnet stammer fra gårdene Røvang i Lomen, Vestre Slidre. Opprinnelsen og betydningen av navnet er noe uklar og det finnes flere forklaringer. I boken "Vang og Slire" av Tore Ey fra 1916 hevdes det at navnet er en kombinasjon av substantivene "ron" og vang. Ron betyr krok og vi finner tilsvarende i stedsnavn som Roa og Røa. Vang betyr åpen slette. I Valdres bygdebok fra 1979 finnes en litt annen forklaring for første stavelse rod sies å komme fra verbet "roda" som betyr å rydde. I så fall betyr navnet ryddet vang eller slette. Skrivemåten har endret seg opp gjennom historien:
1325 - Røduang
1520 - Rodewang
1578 - Røffuang
1592 - Rødvang
1667 - Røvang
Det er umulig å si hvor gammel gårdene er, men det er gjort funn fra vikingtiden i området. En mulighet er at gårdene er skilt ut fra gården Stee i området i perioden 600-800 e.Kr. Men dette er i realiteten rent gjettverk i følge bygdeboka fra 1979.
As of 1th January 2013 53 people living in Norway have Røvang as their family name.
In USA and Canada there are more than 200 people using Rovang, the anglo-american version of Røvang.
Røvang is in it's original form written with the special Scandinavian charachter Ø (o with a slash). A more proper "translation" to English would have been to replace the ø with oe. Rovang seems to have become the standard English written form.
The ø in Røvang is pronouced like the i in the English word bird.
As many other family names in Norway, Røvang is the name of a farm, today 3 smaller farms. The farms are located in the eastern and northern
"corner" of Lake Slidrefjord in Vestre Slidre, Valdres. How old the farms are is not known, but based on findings from the viking era, the farms are probably from year 600-800 AD.
In older times it was quite common to use the name of the farm as a kind of surname. This could apply also to people not directly being member of the family owning the farm, simply living there for work etc. When the ownership of the farm changed, the new owners adopted the farms name as their new family name. As a consequence two people carrying Rovang as their family names are not neccessarily related.
The traditional naming convention was to use your first name, then the name of your father + the suffix "sen" or "son" and then at the end add your place of origin. As an example would Thomas Alvsen Røvang, mean Thomas, son of Alv, from Røvang.
The meaning of the name is somewhat uncertain, but the following explanaitions exsists;
"The first part is most likely "rod", a noun which has given name to many farms. What it means is somewhat uncertain, but philologists believe it is derivated from the verb "roda" -
clear. "Vang" means mound/dike or open plain"
Valdres Bygdebok 1979
"The Name Røvang or Rovang is derivated from ("ron"), corner and meadow or open plain"
Vang og Slire, Tore Ey 1916
The written form of the name has changed throughout history;
1325 - Røduang
1520 - Rodewang
1578 - Røffuang
1592 - Rødvang
1667 - Røvang
