The administrative centre of the municipality was the village of Flisa, where Åsnes Church was located.

This reform changed the spelling in the Norwegian language so that the digraph "aa" was no longer used and instead, the letter å was used.

This is why the name is now usually seen written using the modern spelling: Åsnes og Våler, but this was never used during the existence of the municipality.

The headland that it is referring to is made by the river Glomma near the Åsnes farm which is located beneath a hill.

The first element is the plural form of váll which means "clearing in the woods".