Lebesby Municipality

Lebesby (Northern Sami: Davvesiida and Kven: Lebespyy) is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kjøllefjord. Other villages in the municipality include Ifjord, Kunes, Lebesby, and Veidnes.

The 3,460.5-square-kilometre (1,336.1 sq mi) municipality is the 8th largest by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Lebesby is the 320th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 1,215. The municipality's population density is 0.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (1.0/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 9.4% over the previous 10-year period.

The municipality consists of the western half of the Nordkinn Peninsula, along with areas around the Laksefjorden. Most people live in the village of Kjøllefjord. This municipality is dominated by ethnic Norwegians, whereas the areas around the Laksefjorden are predominantly Sami. Fishing is the mainstay of the population.

There are 17 wind turbines that generate electrical power in Kjøllefjord, as of 2024. The world's northernmost dairy farm that produces milk (Norwegian: melkebruk) is located in Bekkarfjord.

The parish of Lebesby was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). In 1864, the eastern part of Lebesby that surrounds the Tanafjorden (population: 1,388) was separated to become the new Tana Municipality. Tana was later separated into three: Tana Municipality, Gamvik Municipality, and Berlevåg Municipality. The borders of Lebesby have remained unchanged since that time.

On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of the newly formed Troms og Finnmark county. Previously, it had been part of the old Finnmark county. On 1 January 2024, the Troms og Finnmark county was divided and the municipality once again became part of Finnmark county.

The origins of the municipal name are uncertain. There are two main possibilities. Lebesby may be a Norwegianized form of a Northern Sami name Leaibbessiida. The first element is the genitive form of the word leaibi which means "grey alder". The last element is siida which means "reindeer camp" or "dwelling place". A second option for the origin of the name is that Lebesby is a corruption of the Old Norse word Liðvarðsbýr. The first element is Liðvarð which is a male name from long ago. The last element is býr which means "dwelling place" or "farmstead".

The coat of arms was granted on 22 July 1988. The official blazon is "Per fess embattled grady with three steps and two peaks Or and Sable" (Norwegian: Delt av gult og svart ved tredobbelt tindesnitt med to tinder). This means the arms have a field (background) that is divided by a line that is "embattled grady". A line embattled grady consists of series of two or three steps, as if each merlon has a smaller merlon atop it. The field below the line has a tincture of sable and the field above the line has a tincture of Or which means it is commonly colored yellow, but if it is made out of metal, then gold is used. The idea is that the arms represent the Finnkirka ("the Finn Church"), a cliff by the sea in the municipality. This cliff formation has the appearance of a church, and in former times was used by Sami people as a place of sacrifice. The arms were designed by Arvid Sveen.