jerne

Jerne is a place name that occurs in several countries, most commonly as a small village in Northern Europe. The most well‑known Jerne is a hamlet located in the municipality of Røros in central Norway; it lies near the junction of the Rørosbanen railway and National Road 70. The village has a historic stave church that dates from the 12th century and a population of roughly 250 residents. Jerne is also recorded as the name of a small settlement in the Danish province of Jutland, where the surrounding area is primarily agricultural and the community is served by a local primary school.

The name Jerne is also a surname of Anglo‑Scottish origin. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Jerne family produced several notable intellectuals, including Alexander Jerne, a British philosopher whose work on epistemology was published in the 1960s, and Ingrid Jerne, a Swedish botanist who contributed to the taxonomy of alpine flora. More recently, Laura Jerne, a New Zealand social entrepreneur, has been active in community development initiatives in the Wellington region.

The term Jerne has appeared in literary works as a character name, and it has even been used in the context of a historic naval ship, the HMS Jerne, which served in the Royal Navy during the First World War. The ship was decommissioned in 1932 after a career that involved convoy escort duties in the North Atlantic.