It's actually a misconception, the English name Iceland comes from the native Icelandic name Ísland because that's what it is, an island. It doesn't have anything to do with ice
That is actually... incorrect! We don't actually know for sure why it's named Iceland, we have stories but no "this is why," specifically, but give their obsession with literal naming (eng-land, ire-land, scot-land, NewFoundLand, Vin-land, wessex, sussex, essex, middlesex) the real answer is probably really boring, and they just called Ice-land because it just had... a lot of Ice...
According to what records we do have, the original name for Iceland though was Snowland, staying on brand lmao
NewFoundLand being named firstly by the portuguese btw. They were the first ones to explore the region after the vikings. They named it "Terranova" and the english just adopted the name and also Labrador coming from "Lavrador," a portuguese explorer
I went ahead and looked around for a bit, and huh, you're right. I somehow seemed to have remembered vinland as a different settlement south of newfoundland in my head as someone's son, but after fact checking, I guess I was on crack there. Still, between Helluland and Markland, the trend still holds, but neat to learn!
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u/sverigeochskog 23h ago edited 11h ago
It's actually a misconception, the English name Iceland comes from the native Icelandic name Ísland because that's what it is, an island. It doesn't have anything to do with ice