Editing Leirvik (section)

==Name==
Confusingly, when the municipality of [[Stord]] declared that Leirvik was a town in 1997, they decided to name the town "Stord", with the village of Leirvik being the central part of the town.  This was done because the [[Government of Norway|Norwegian government]] required a populated place to have at least 5,000 residents in order to be called a [[List of towns and cities in Norway|town]]. Leirvik alone did not have enough residents unless the whole surrounding areas were also included, so the name "Stord" would represent the whole area. Even though this is the official name, the public acceptance of this has been minimal and controversial, and the name of the urban community remains "Leirvik".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sunnhordland.no/article/20070131/NYHENDE/101310004|title=Heiter byen Stord eller Leirvik?|newspaper=Sunnhordland|date=2007-01-31|language=no|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205053506/http://www.sunnhordland.no/article/20070131/NYHENDE/101310004|archive-date=2015-02-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sunnhordland.no/article/20080731/LEIAR/482807680|title=Skal Stord skifta namn no?|newspaper=Sunnhordland|date=2008-07-31|language=no|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205045448/http://www.sunnhordland.no/article/20080731/LEIAR/482807680|archive-date=2015-02-05}}</ref>

The name Leirvik ({{lang|non|Leirvík}}) translates into "clay bay".  The word "leire" meaning "[[clay]]" and "vik" meaning "[[bay]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=Norske gaardnavne: Søndre Bergenhus amt|edition=11|author-link=Oluf Rygh|last=Rygh|first=Oluf|publisher=W. C. Fabritius & sønners bogtrikkeri|date=1910|location=Kristiania, Norge|pages=144|url=http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_bla.prl?enhid=170494&avid=38258&s=n|language=no|access-date=5 February 2015|archive-date=23 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923223558/http://www.dokpro.uio.no/perl/navnegransking/rygh_ng/rygh_bla.prl?enhid=170494&avid=38258&s=n|url-status=live}}</ref>  The name comes from the high concentration of clay in the ground. The locals often [[colloquially]] refer to Leirvik by the name "Vikjo", meaning "the bay" in local dialect, rather than "Leirvik".