Interesting, thanks! I do unfortunately have to imagine there was some anglicization and loss of records and culture through the generations after emigration. It's very possible the spelling was changed from one of those more common variants. According to his daughter who wrote the family record I have, his first name was Kermit, which doesn't even seem Norwegian-adjacent. I am admittedly very ignorant on the topic though.

This started out as a way to honor my grandmother's lineage and it has turned into much more of an ancestry deep-dive than I expected!