The village of Bod� was granted township status in 1816 and is now the capital of Nordland county. The town of Bod� was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). On 1 January 1938, a part of the municipality of Bodin(population: 559) was transferred into the town of Bod�. On 1 January 1959, another part of Bodin (population: 1,303) was transferred into Bod�.
On 1 January 1968, the municipality of Bodin was merged into the town of Bod�, doubling the population of the town. On 1 January 1984, the T�rnvika and �yg�rden areas (population: 22) northeast of Kjerring�y in S�rfold municipality was transferred to Bod�. On 1 January 2005, the entire municipality of Skjerstad was merged into the municipality of Bod�.
World War II
Most of Bod� was destroyed during a Luftwaffe attack on the 27 May 1940. Six thousand people were living in Bod�, and 3500 people lost their homes in the attack. Fifteen people lost their lives during the air attack (two British soldiers and 13 Norwegians).
Due to the acute lack of housing, the Swedish Government helped build 107 apartments in the winter of 1941. These houses were built tightly together just outside the town. This small area, today in the heart of Bod�, is still called Svenskebyen ("the Swedish Town"). The town was subsequently rebuilt after the war. The rebuilding ended in 1959 with the completion of the new town hall. German shipping in and around Bod� was attacked in October 1943 in Operation Leader.
Toponymy
The municipality is named after the old Bod�g�rd farm (Old Norse: Bo�vin), since the town was built on its ground. The first element might be bo�i which means "sunken rock" or "skerry" and the last element is vin which means "meadow" or "pasture". The last element may have been misunderstood as �y which means "island" (and written with the Danish language form �).
Coat of arms
The coat of arms is from modern times;
