The municipality (originally the
parish) of Vestre Moland was established on 1 January 1838 (see
formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1865, the municipality was divided into two separate municipalities of Vestre Moland (population: 2,167)—the northern part and
Høvåg (population: 2,069) the southern part. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the
Schei Committee. On 1 January 1962, Vestre Moland (population: 2,454) was merged with the municipality of
Høvåg, the
ladested of
Lillesand, and the Gitmark farm area in the municipality of
Eide to form a new, enlarged Lillesand municipality.
Name The municipality (originally the
parish) is named after the old
Moland farm (), since the first
Vestre Moland Church was built there. The prefix (which means "western") was added to differentiate the place from
Austre Moland which was located a little further north along the coast of Norway in present-day
Arendal. The first element of the name is derived from the
river . The river name comes from the Old Norse word which means "brave" or "courageous". The last element is which means "land" or "district". ==Government==