The town of Svelvik was established as a
ladested on 1 January 1845 when it was separated from
Strømm Municipality. Initially, the new town had a population of 1,201. The town was historically located in
Jarlsberg og Laurvig county (present-day
Vestfold county). Under the
formannskapsdistrikt law, Svelvik was granted self-governing status as a municipality since it was a town. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the
Schei Committee. On 1 January 1964, the town of Svelvik (population: 1,188) was merged with
Strømm Municipality (population: 2,618) to form the new
Svelvik Municipality. On 1 January 2020, Svelvik Municipality (population: 6,685) was merged into the neighboring
Drammen Municipality (which made it switch from
Vestfold to
Viken county), so from then on, the town of Svelvik has been part of Drammen Municipality. On 1 January 2024, Viken county was dissolved and this area became part of
Buskerud county.
Name The municipality (originally the
parish) is named after the old
Svelvik farm () since the first
Svelvik Church was built there. The first element comes from the word which means "
sword". The last element is which means "
bay" or "
cove". The name "sword bay" is likely referring to the
Ryggen promontory ridge across from the town of Svelvik. The ridge juts out into the
Drammensfjorden like a sword and divides the fjord into two halves. The neighboring farm is called
Sverstad () which has the same etymology. ==Geography==