The name was created for several descendants of Danish monarchs of the House of Oldenburg, born of their liaisons with royal mistresses.

The first grantees were children from the 1677 marriage between Countess Antoinette von Aldenburg and Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve, Count of Laurvig, a celebrated (Norwegian) general and the son of Frederick III of Denmark by his mistress Margrethe Pape.

He married his cousin, Countess Antoinette Augusta von Aldenburg (1660–1701) (eldest daughter of Count Anton I von Aldenburg und Knyphausen and his first wife, Countess Auguste Johanna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein (1638–1669), himself a legitimated son of Anton Gunther, last independent Count of Oldenburg).

Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve's children from his third marriage to Countess Antoinette Augusta von Aldenburg were named Danneskiold in 1693.

He owned the County of Laurvig in Norway, was director of the West Indies-Guinea Company and built it since the Counts Moltke belonging to the Palace in Bredgade in Copenhagen.