Why Is Iceland called Greenland, and vice versa?
Iceland is from the same word in their language: Ísland. It is a concatenation of Ís + Land, meaning ice-land. Because it’s cold. That one’s pretty self explanatory. “Greenland” has two explanations, neither of which is verifiable. The place was named by Erik the Red when he discovered it in the year 982. One story says that his family was from Grønland, a town in Norway, and the name comes from that. That happens alot, people naming a place after the place they came from: New York, New England, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. etc. Another story says that he simply called it that to make it sound nice (even though it is very cold and harsh) to attract settlers. The two were named independently – there’s no oversight or review to make sure names “make the most sense.” They make as much sense as they need to – we know where they came from, and why they’re called what they’re called. They both are cold and icy, and they both have land. I wouldn’t worry too much about comparing the two.
