area The
parish of
Qvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see
formannskapsdistrikt law). On 1 January 1907, a small area northwest of the villages of
Ølve and
Husa (population: 67) was transferred from neighboring
Tysnes Municipality to Kvinnherad Municipality. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the
Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the following areas were merged into one large Kvinnherad Municipality: Historically, this municipality was part of the old
Hordaland county. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became a part of the newly-formed
Vestland county (after
Hordaland and
Sogn og Fjordane counties were merged).
Name The municipality (originally the
parish) is named after the old name for the area (). The first element may be derived from the word which means "double", likely referring to the two rivers running through
Rosendal, the
administrative centre of the municipality. The last element is which means "district" or "countryside". The municipal name has been spelled several ways throughout history. Before 1889, the name was written
Quindherred, then in 1889 the spelling was "modernized" to
Kvinnherred. At that time, all municipalities in Norway were titled (which was used similarly to the word "municipality"), so it was formally named
Kvinnherred herred, which looked a little repetitive. On 3 November 1917, a
royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to
Kvinnherad, using the
Nynorsk spelling instead of the
Bokmål spelling.
Coat of arms The
coat of arms was granted on 18 June 1982. The official
blazon is
"Argent, a pall wavy azure" (). This means the arms have a
field (background) has a
tincture of
argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The
ordinary is a
pall with wavy edges. The design of the arms show the
confluence of two blue rivers into one on a white or silver background. The rivers symbolize the many
streams and
rivers in the municipality, especially the Hattebergselvi and the Melselvi, that come together just before they run into the sea at
Rosendal. The arms were designed by Truls Nygaard, after a proposal by Magnus Hardeland. The municipal flag has the same design as the coat of arms.
Churches The
Church of Norway has nine parishes () within Kvinnherad Municipality. It is part of the
Sunnhordland prosti (
deanery) in the
Diocese of Bjørgvin. ==Economy==