The municipality was established as Indvigenformannskapsdistrikt on 1 January 1838. In 1843, the eastern part of the municipality was separated from Innvik to form the new Stryn Municipality, leaving Innvik with 2,675 inhabitants. On 1 October 1922, the Raksgrenda area (between the villages of Loen and Stryn), with 120 inhabitants, was administratively transferred from Innvik to Stryn. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, Innvik Municipality and neighboring Stryn Municipality were merged back together, creating a much larger municipality named Stryn. Prior to the merger, Innvik municipality had 3,003 inhabitants.[3]
Name
The municipality (originally the parish) is named after the old Innvik farm (Old Norse: Víkr) since the first Innvik Church was built there. The original name was the plural form of the word vík which means "small bay", "cove", or "inlet". Some time around the 15th century, the prefix inn (which means "inside" or "inner") was added to distinguish the area from nearby Utvik (meaning "outer" Vik).[1][4] Historically, the name of the municipality was spelled Indviken. On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Innvik, removing the definite form ending -en and using a "inn" instead of more Danish spelling of "ind".[5]
The municipal council(Heradsstyre) of Innvik was made up of 25 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The party breakdown of the final municipal council was as follows: