Editing Gjesdal (section)

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[prestegjeld|parish]]) is named after the old ''[[Gjesdal (village)|Gjesdal]]'' farm ({{langx|non|Gesdalir}}) since the first [[Gjesdal Church]] was built there. The first element is probably the old name of the local river, but the meaning is uncertain. The last element is the plural form of {{wikt-lang|non|dalr}} which means "[[valley]]" or "dale".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u4pBAAAAIAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Stavanger amt |date=1915 |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |edition=10 |location=Kristiania, Norge |pages=155 and 159 |language=no |authorlink=Oluf Rygh}}</ref>

Before 1889, the name was spelled ''Gjæsdal'', which is the [[Danish language|Danish]] spelling. During the period from 1889 to 1917 it was spelled ''Gjesdal'' ([[Norwegian language]] version). On 3 November 1917, a [[royal decree|royal resolution]] changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to ''Gjestal''.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1917 |title=Norsk Lovtidende. 2den Afdeling. 1917. Samling af Love, Resolutioner m.m |url=https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2015102381014_001 |journal=[[Norsk Lovtidend]] |language=no |location=Kristiania, Norge |publisher=Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri |pages=1057–1065}}</ref> This was changed to mimic the pronunciation of the local [[dialect]] (the [[voiced alveolar plosive|d]] in ''dal'' is pronounced [[voiceless alveolar plosive|t]] because of the voiceless consonant [[voiceless alveolar fricative|s]] in front). On 26 June 1964, a [[royal decree|royal resolution]] changed the spelling of the name of the municipality back to ''Gjesdal'' as part of a border adjustment that was to take effect on 1 January 1965.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1964 |title=Norsk Lovtidende. 2den Afdeling. 1964. Samling af Love, Resolutioner m.m |url=https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NBN:no-nb_digitidsskrift_2015102381023_001 |journal=[[Norsk Lovtidend]] |language=no |location=Oslo, Norway |publisher=Grøndahl og Søns Boktrykkeri |page=471}}</ref> This change in spelling was made to bring the name back to the [[etymological]]ly correct form of ''Gjesdal''.<ref name="snl">{{Cite web |last=Store norske leksikon |author-link=Store norske leksikon |title=Gjestal |url=https://snl.no/Gjestal |access-date=2016-03-14 |language=no}}</ref>