Stockholm’s prominent landmark, the Storkyrkan (church) is featured with a photo in today’s Wikipedia main-page. The entry at Wikipedia for that church has no info about how it received such a name, the first five letters being a bird with mythical symbolism.
Googling on “storks and church steeples,” I found this partial statement in a Belarus website having to do with the national bird of that country: “White storks build their nests in towers or church steeples…”
The obvious question, then, is whether there is an etymological connection between storks and the church in Stockholm.
Apparently the word means “the great church.”
Thanks. Your info looks valid, and the confusion I had had apparently derived from coincidence.
@Darren_Garrison is right. Stor means great in the sense of big or large and kyrka means church.
In Swedish, the definite article is not a separate word before the noun like in english (a church vs the church) but is added as a suffix to the word (en kyrka vs kyrkan). So, storkyrkan = the big / great church
The entry at Wikipedia for that church has no info about how it received such a name
If you look right after the pronunciation of the church, Wikipedia does say "lit. ‘The Great Church’ ").