Sandnes was separated from H�yland as a municipality of its own in 1860, and gained city status the same year. On 1 January 1965, the rural municipalities of H�yland and H�le, as well as parts of Hetland, were merged with Sandnes.
Name
The city is named after an old farm ("Sandn�s" 1723), since the city was built on its ground. The first element is sand which means "sand" or "sandy beach", the last element is nes which means "headland".
Coat-of-arms
The coat-of-arms was granted on 21 April 1972. The arms show a piece of pottery, as pottery was one of the main industries in the late 18th century. The symbol is aleirgauk, which in English would be a ceramic cuckoo-bird (leir(e)= clay/ceramic and gauk/gj�k = cuckoo-bird). The ceramic Sandnes-cuckoo (Norwegian: sandnesgauker) is an ocarina or simple flute which was made by the potteries in Sandnes and used to advertise their products. Later it also became a nickname for people from Sandnes
