By Svante Strandberg
In: Ortnamnssällskapets i Uppsala årsskrift 2018
Summary
Nälje is the name of a farm (formerly a hamlet) in Kattnäs parish, Södermanland. Early records of this settlement include Nerdiga 1486, närdinghe 1535 and Närdinge 1544. Near the farm there are three prehistoric cemeteries. The final element of Nälje could contain a form of the word ö ‘land by water; island’, or of the word eke ‘oak vegetation, clump of oaks’. It is more likely, though, that the final element contains a form of the noun hög ‘hill, height’ and that it refers to a natural elevation near the farm. The first element could contain a form *N(i)ærdh- ‘constriction, narrow passage’. However, the author is more inclined to link Nälje to the pagan god’s name Njärd (ON Njǫrðr).