The municipality called Kopervik herred was established on 1 January 1909 when it was split off from the municipality of Avaldsnes. Initially, Kopervik had a population of 1,001. The rural municipality surrounded the town of Kopervik which was a separate municipality. In 1917, the name of the municipality was changed to Stangaland to better distinguish the municipality from the neighboring town with the same name. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, Stangaland municipality was merged with the neighboring municipalities of Avaldsnes, Skudenes, Torvastad, and Åkra and with the towns of Kopervik and Skudeneshavn to form the new municipality of Karmøy. Prior to the merger, Stangaland had a population of 2,678.[4]
Name
The municipality was originally named Kopervik in 1909, and it was named after the neighboring town of Kopervik. The name has an uncertain meaning, but the Old Norse form of the name may have been Koparvík. The first element is possibly named after a very small, nearby skerry, Koparnaglen, which was originally named Kobbanaglen. That name likely comes from the word kobbi which means "seal". The last element is vík which means "inlet" or "bay".[5]
In 1917, the municipal name was changed to Stangaland, after the old Stangeland farm (Old Norse: Stangaland). The name was changed to help distinguish it from the neighboring town of Kopervik. The first element is the plural genitive case of stǫng which means "staff" or "pole". The last element is land which means "land" or "district".[6]
The municipal council(Herredsstyre) of Stangaland was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: