How to Read an Icelandic Place Name

Almost every Icelandic place name is a compound built from ordinary words, describing what is there. Once you can read the parts, a name stops being a wall of letters and becomes a description - often a very literal one. Reykjavík is "smoky bay", for the steam the first settlers saw over the hot springs. Vatnajökull is "the water glacier".

This is the single most useful thing to learn before driving here, because it lets you tell from the name alone whether you are heading for a waterfall, a fjord or a glacier tongue.

• -foss waterfall - Seljalandsfoss, Goðafoss, Dettifoss, Skógafoss
• -á river - Þjórsá, Jökulsá (glacier river)
• -vatn lake - Mývatn (midge lake), Þingvallavatn
• -lón lagoon - Jökulsárlón, the glacier-river lagoon
• -hver hot spring - Hveragerði, Hverir
• -laug pool, warm bathing water - Landmannalaugar

• -jökull glacier - Vatnajökull, Snæfellsjökull, Eyjafjallajökull
• -fell and -fjall mountain - Kirkjufell (church mountain), Helgafell
• -tindur peak; -heiði moor or heath; -gil ravine
• -hraun lava field - Eldhraun, Berserkjahraun
• -sandur black sand plain - Skeiðarársandur
• -öræfi wilderness, uninhabited interior

• -vík bay - Reykjavík, Húsavík, Vík í Mýrdal
• -fjörður fjord - Ísafjörður, Seyðisfjörður, Hvalfjörður (whale fjord)
• -nes headland or peninsula - Snæfellsnes, Reykjanes
• -eyri gravel spit - Akureyri
• -ey island - Heimaey, Grímsey
• -bær farm or town; -staðir homestead; -holt wooded hill

Eyjafjallajökull = eyja (islands) + fjalla (mountains) + jökull (glacier): the glacier over the mountains by the islands. The islands are the Westman Islands offshore.

Jökulsárlón = jökuls (glacier's) + á (river) + lón (lagoon): the lagoon of the glacier river. The name is the geography.

Kirkjufell = kirkju (church) + fell (mountain). Landmannalaugar = the pools of the land's men.

Names repeat constantly - there are many places called Vík and dozens ending in -foss - which is why Icelanders often add the district: Vík í Mýrdal, not just Vík.

Icelandic is heavily inflected, so the first half of a compound usually appears in the genitive - the possessive form - and that changes its spelling. Jökull (glacier) becomes jökuls- in Jökulsárlón; kirkja (church) becomes kirkju- in Kirkjufell; á (river) becomes ár-. This is why the same word looks slightly different in different names, and why searching for an exact string often fails.

The practical rule: read the end of the name first. The last element tells you what kind of thing it is, and it is the part that does not change.

There are many places called Vík, dozens of waterfalls ending in -foss, and several Reykjavíks-in-miniature scattered around the coast wherever there was steam. Icelanders disambiguate by adding the district: Vík í Mýrdal is the Vík on the south coast, distinct from every other bay of that name.

Farm names ending in -staðir are usually the oldest layer, often built on a settler's name from the ninth century - Grímsstaðir is Grímur's homestead. A surprising number of these farms are still working farms with the same name a thousand years later.

• reyk- smoke or steam; ís- ice; eld- fire; svart- black; hvít- white; rauð- red
• stór- big; litla- little; ný- new; gamla- old
• norð-, suð-, aust-, vest- - the compass, as in Norðurland (the north country) and Austfirðir (the east fjords)
• hval- whale, sel- seal, arnar- eagle, hafnar- harbour

Put the two halves together and Hvalfjörður is whale fjord, Svartifoss is black waterfall, and Norðurljós - the northern lights - is simply north-light.

Reading the parts tells you what a stop actually is before you drive to it. A name in -jökull means ice and probably a guided trip rather than a walk-up, which is covered in our glacier hikes and ice caves guide. A name in -laug or -hver means bathing water - see hot springs and pools. And the stops along the Ring Road itineraries are largely -foss, -vík and -jökull, in that order.

The letters themselves - þ, ð, æ, ö and the accented vowels - are explained on the Icelandic alphabet page.