Hallo Meredith,

I have never heard the name used in Norway.
The names that are closed to it would be Merete/Merethe or Edit/Edith

The "meaning"/"roots" of Edith are, according to the Swedish name register
(www.svenskanamn.com),English from the name Eadqyth and the meaning would be wealth and fight/war;
in Norwegian "rikdom" and "strid"
They have no information concerning Merete/Merethe.

Good luck !

Greetings from Tone

As 'Meredith' has nothing to do with Norwegian, I searched the web via Google (THE best search engine) and found this page about Meredith (with many useful links (go to the page 'http://genforum.genealogy.com/cgi-genforum/pageload.cgi?Orig...

The origin of the Meredith name
Posted by: R. J Meredith Date: April 23, 1998 at 10:46:49
of 1148


Hello to everybody!
I'm posting this in response to the great number of inquiries I deal with about the
origin and meaning of Meredith.
Firstly, contrary to a lot of information I've seen (including the American Websters dictionary),
the name has nothing to do with the sea whatsoever. It does not mean "Guardian of the Sea", Protector of the Sea or any other
such combination.
The original spelling was Maredudd - pronounced "Mredeeth". That's right - there's no mention of the "E" following the "M".
In the Welsh language and in English speaking Wales, the accent and stress is always on the Penultimate syllable, the modern pronunciation is therefore - "Mer-ed'-ith.
The incorrect pronunciation that strikes the name outside of the Welsh borders is the one widely accepted in the U.S. and the rest of Britain, which curiously
causes "Merry" to be a suitable shortening?! To those of us who are Welsh it is grating to the ears to say the least to hear our name so mutilated!
Other seemingly unrelated but correct pet or short forms of the name are PRIDDY, PREEDY, PREDDY, BEDO, BEDDOES etc.
The final element of the original spelling, "udd" means "lord". The same element is present in the ancient form of Griffith i.e. Gruffudd. The first part of the name
has often been a subject of much discussion but some schools of Welsh scholarly thought place the "MAR" as possibly another variant of Mawr =great, large etc. I have also
heard it stated that it may mean "bright" or "shining"? Whatever, the exact case, - it does not refer to the sea or water of any kind.
The name is of course a male christian name with some of the earliest examples dating from the 6th century onwards. It was a name popular with some members of the ancient Welsh Royal families.
Exactly how or why it should become common as a female name in the U.S is curious indeed!!
The name's most common point of origin is in the rural border counties of Mid Wales - Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire and also over the border in Herefordshire and it's neighbours. Even today, this is where the greatest concentration
of the name exists.
There are several ancient families of the name - that is to say families who adopted the name as a "fixed" surname prior to the mid 1600's. The Meredith families of Llanbister/Llangunllo/ St Harmon and Nantmel being some of the most ancient.
As with most Welsh names, Meredith and it's variants are PATRONYMIC and so anyone who researches the name in Wales should be aware of that fact.
I hope that this short missive will be of some use to somebody! Anyone wanting any further info or explanation, please feel free to contact me.

Richard Meredith


Followups:

Re: The origin of the Meredith name Brad W.Meredith 9/29/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Gene Smith 9/29/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Brad W. Meredith 9/30/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Gene Smith 10/03/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Brad W. Meredith 10/05/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Gene Smith 10/06/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Gene Smith 10/03/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Lori Meredith 7/28/98 (0)
Re: The origin of the Meredith name LaWanda Nepstad 5/01/98 (2)
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Meredith Winn 6/18/00
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Richard John Meredith 6/19/00
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Meredith Winn 6/19/00
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Brad W.Meredith 9/29/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Jim Meredith 6/28/98 (1)
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Frank Kreager 9/29/98 (0)
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Ruth Osborn 9/27/99
Re: The origin of the Meredith name Virgel C. Law 4/25/98 (0)

Use the links to get to know more!

Cheers

Mats Wiman