Daily Ancestordatter
Datter means "daughter" in Norwegian; the patronymic ending -datter, as in Olsdatter, means "daughter of Ole".
A girl took her father's given name plus -datter, so the daughter of Halvor was Halvorsdatter while her brother was Halvorsen. The plural is døtre, and datterdatter is a daughter's daughter.
These names changed every generation and were not family surnames. Hereditary family names became compulsory in Norway only in 1925, so a mother and her daughter usually have different second names.
As seen in a recordHousehold list of the 1865 census of Norway
Sigrun Tollefsdatter, deres Datter, ugift, 9 Aar
Another puzzling word in your record?
Look it up: old jobs, causes of death, Latin, abbreviations, nicknames and more.
Sources
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "datter." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/norwegian/datter. Last checked 2026-10-28.