Daily AncestorAar
Aar is the old spelling of år, "year"; it appears in dates such as Aar 1856 and in ages such as 78 Aar, 78 years old.
In most Norwegian records before about 1915 the letter å is written aa, so aar is simply år; Wiktionary marks aar as an obsolete spelling, non-standard since 1917. FamilySearch notes that aa was also filed at the start of the alphabet, not at the end where å is today.
Latin anno, in the year, is used the same way in older books. The same rule changes place names: Aasen is Åsen, and a farm Aamot is Åmot.
As seen in a recordBurial register of a Norwegian church book, 1850s
Aar 1856 den 13 Januar begravet: Enke Guri Tostensdatter, 78 Aar
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How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Aar." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/norwegian/aar. Last checked 2026-10-28.