Zahl (Norwegian family)

The family immigrated from Denmark to Norway in the 17th century with Niels Jensen Zahl (Saell), District Stipendiary Magistrate (Norwegian: sorenskriver) in the 1620s and residing in Vadsø.

[2] Family members have been traders and shippers, and some have as sheriffs (Norwegian: lensmann) held local police authority.

Later, Hamsun—a 1920 Nobel Literature Prize laureate—used Zahl as a model for the famous character Mack appearing in many of his novels, among others Pan (1894).

Anders Nicolai Zahl (1807–1857) of the Nordvika branch married Lorentze Sophie Lie, née Krogh (b.

Whilst the name in the aspect of orthography is identical with the German word Zahl, which means digit or number, its etymological origin remains unknown or unconfirmed.