Norström Family Name

[Steven Norström]

I am wondering if Norström is a common family name?  My ancestors came from Sweden in the early 1900's and as far as I can tell, the name is rare.
 
I am especially interested in any Norström family that lives in or around Vasterås.
 
In 2007 the community of Westerose, Alberta Canada (which was named after Vasterås by my Great Great Grandpa Johan Norström) will be celebrating its centennial (100th) and I wish to invite any and all Norströms to the celebration.

[Magga Hellman]

There are 54 Norström only in Västerås and here is a link to the yellow pages for them.
http://privatpersoner.eniro.se/query?firstname=&lastname=Norstr%F6m&area=V%E4ster%E5s&phone_number=&what=wp&firstnameType=trunc&lastnameType=trunc&address=&addressType=trunc&zipcode=&region=&advanced=
 
I have some Norström among my ancestors and I will try to find out if any of them are connected to your Johan. They were born about 50km from Västerås around 1830-50.
I will start to ask under Sveriges befolkning 1890 further down on this page to see if any of them have moved to Västerås.
Do you know when Johan came to USA and do you know he´s parents name?
 
Magga

[Peter Karlsson (Peterk)]

My experience is that both Norström and Nordström could appear on people in the same families. (Many Norström become Nordström from 1800's to 1900's in a family I have followed a bit.) And theese are very common names..

[Bo Oscarson]

Steven,
 
Johan Erik Norström born 1846 i Skultuna (U), just North of Västerås, and his wife Johanna Persdotter born 1843 in Ludvika (W) lived 1890 at Norströms torp, Skerike (U). Skerike, also to the North, very close to Västerås. At that time they had six children. Karl Johan 1875, Frans Wilhelm 1877, Axel Leonard 1879, Erik Alfred 1881, Arvid Teodor 1883 and Maria Ottilia 1886. All born in Skerike.
When they emigrated, 1905-11-17 from Göteborg they had only a daughter Edith with them that was nine year old.
Karl Johan (1875) left Sweden 1906-06-29 together with a boy, Karl Theodor Norström, that was five year old.
All of them were bound for Wetaskiwin, Alberta.
 
Rgds. Bo.

[Steven Norström]

Magga
 
Johan, Johanna and Edit (adopted granddaughter)Norström left Sweden in November of 1905.
 
Some of their children had already immigrated to Wetaskiwin area in Alberta Canada.

[Steve Norström]

Bo
 
Thank you for this added information.
 
Johan is my Great Great Grandpa. Erik is my Great Grandpa.

[Christina Backman]

Nor(d)= North Ström = stream. I doubt the original Norström thought too much about the meaning. Possibly he lived in a village beginning with Nor(d) or Ström, possibly he just thought it was a nice name, which it is.

[Lars Skillius]

In Centrala Soldatregistret (~ the Central Register of alotted Soldiers), http://www.liu.se/tema/databaser/search.php?id=49, there are more than 20 soldiers with the name Norstöm in the Västmanlands regemente. This regiment was situated in the same county as Västerås.

[Joel Vogler]

In the CD Sveriges befolkning 1970 presenting some 8 million persons living in the Sweden 1970 you can find 1950 Norströms and 12820 Nordströms, so there might be quite a lot of people coming to Westerose!

[Erik Holmlund]

The word 'nor' means 'narrow strait' and you can't say for sure if it is derived from 'nord'(north) or if it is just 'nor' unless more research is done. One person who picked the name Norström could have picked the name as a reference to a 'narrow strait' but antoher person who picked the same name could have been thinking of 'north'. But there's also other possibilities, like someone said, your ancester could also have been given the name in the military.
/Erik

[Jojje Lintrup]

I hope this message will confirm Erik's point of view, that NOR doesn't come from north. In Mora where I live, there are several villages with nor in the name, among them Noret and Östnor. Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (SAOB) explains the word as follows:  BRUK: (i vissa trakter, bygdemålsfärgat)  BETYDELSE: trångt sund; vattendrag som förenar två sjöar l. en sjö o. en älv; äv.: ställe där ett vattendrag faller ut i (l. ut ur) en sjö; äv.: smalt ställe i en å l. älv; förr äv.: lång bäck.  GYLLENIUS Diar. 13 (c. 1660; om lång bäck). Bysjön hvilken har sammanlopp med Elfven genom et så kalladt Nor. HüLPHERS Dal. 301 (1762). (Vi skulle bli tvungna) att öfvergå flera nor, som älfven bildar. TurÅ 1906, s. 260. -- särsk.   BETYDELSE: i utvidgad anv., om landremsa utefter ett nor.  Medan kyrkbåtarna avlastade sitt innehåll på det ljusa noret (vid Leksand). KARLFELDT Tank. 44 (1926).

[Anders Andersson]

In the 1890 census there are about 1,250 Norström and 2,500 Nordström (excluding minor children). I find it interesting that the ratio between the two names has changed from 1:2 to nearly 1:7 in the 80 years between 1890 and 1970; Nordström appears to have become significantly more common while Norström has remained around the same general level (considering also the increase in population).
 
Then there is the much less common variant Norrström, of which there were only 100 people in 1890, and not a lot more today either. The words norr and nord can be regarded as synonymous (meaning north), while the original meaning of nor in Norström remains disputed.