From Old Norse kjarr (“copsewood, underbrush, bushes, scrub”), from Proto-Germanic *kerzą, *kerzuz (“scrub, bushes”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵers- (“to turn, bend, twist”). Cognate with Danish kær (“brushwood, undergrowth, scrub”), Norwegian kjerr, kjarr, kjørr (“thicket”), Icelandic kjarr (“scrub”).