Editing Sortland Municipality (section)

===Name===
The municipality (originally the [[prestegjeld|parish]]) is named after the old ''Sortland'' farm ({{langx|non|Svortuland}}) since the first [[Sortland Church]] was built there. The first element is {{lang|non|Svort}} which is the [[genitive case]] of the local river name ''Svorta''. The river name is derived from {{wikt-lang|non|svartr}} which means "black" or "dark". The last element is {{wikt-lang|non|land}} which means "land" or "[[farm]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rygh |first=Oluf |author-link=Oluf Rygh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K21BAAAAIAAJ |title=Norske gaardnavne: Nordlands amt |publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri |year=1905 |edition=16 |location=Kristiania, Norge |pages=393 |language=no}}</ref>

On 2 May 2017, the national government approved a resolution to add a co-equal, official [[Sami language]] name for the municipality: {{lang|se|Suortá}}.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-05-02 |title=Fastsetting av samisk navn på Sortland kommune, Nordland |url=https://lovdata.no/dokument/LTII/forskrift/2017-04-28-514 |access-date=2023-11-19 |publisher=LovData.no |language=no}}</ref> The spelling of the Sami language name changes depending on how it is used. It is called {{lang|se|Suortá}} when it is spelled alone, but it is {{lang|se|Suorttá suohkan}} when using the Sami language equivalent to "Sortland municipality".<ref name="sami name">{{Cite web |title=Stadnamn og rettskriving |url=https://www.kartverket.no/til-lands/stadnamn/stadnamn-og-offisielle-sprak-i-noreg |access-date=2023-11-19 |publisher=[[Kartverket]] |language=no}}</ref>