Nes og Hidra

Nes og Hitterø or Hitterø og Nes is a former municipality that was located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. It was located in the southwestern part of the present-day municipality of Flekkefjord in Agder county. It encompassed the Nes peninsula and the island of Hidra (formerly called Hitterø). The 240 km2 municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1893. The administrative centre of the municipality was the small village of Sunde in Nes parish, located just outside the town of Flekkefjord (which was its own separate municipality).

History
The municipality of Flekkefjord landdistrikt was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). According to the 1835 census, the municipality had a population of 3,155. The name was changed to Nes og Hitterø in 1864. On 8 October 1893, Nes og Hitterø was divided to create two new municipalities: Nes (population: 1,704) and Hitterø (population: 2,075). These two municipalities were later merged into the municipality of Flekkefjord during the 1960s.

Name
The municipality (originally the parish) was originally named Flekkefjord landdistrikt since it was the rural area surrounding the town of Flekkefjord. In 1864, the municipal name was changed to Nes og Hitterø, a compound name literally meaning "Nes and Hitterø". Records show that the name compound name was also sometimes reversed to Hitterø og Nes. After the municipality was dissolved, the name Hitterø was modernized to Hidra in 1917. Since then, the former municipality is sometimes referred to as Nes og Hidra, using the updated name (even though it was never called this during its existence).

The parish of Nes is named after the old Nes farm (Nes) since the first local church (now called Flekkefjord Church) was built at that location. The name is identical to the word which means "peninsula", since the farm is located on a peninsula.

The parish of Hitterø is named after the island of Hidra (Hitrar) since the first Hidra Church was built there. The name is the plural form of hitr which means "split" or "cleft" (referring to the fact that the island is almost split in two by the Rasvåg fjord).