Icelandic Naming Committee Approves New Names, Paradís Included

The Naming Committe has now approved the first names Nieljohníus, Diddi, Karna, Paradís, Amarie, Villiblóm, Hildís, Þórunnborg, Mattheó, Ivan and Ýda, RUV reports.

It’s the one year birthday of our wonderful little Geldingadalir eruption that we miss so dearly. So we offer a 15% discount on ALL volcano related products until next Friday! Click here to see some of them! As always, to keep supporting our journalism and getting some sweet perks, join our High Five Club today.

The committee issued a number of rulings on March 1, but the rulings were recently published on the government’s website. No names were rejected by the Naming Committee this time, but of the newly published rulings, two cases were to be reopened.

The name Ýda was approved as the alternative spelling of the name Ída.

The Icelandic Naming Committee is an organization responsible for registering approved Icelandic given names and deciding whether new five names can be introduced into Icelandic culture.

Typically, the criteria the Naming Committee uses is twofold: that the name can be declined in accordance with Icelandic grammar rules, or that the name has some historic precedence. The Naming Committee is a controversial institution amongst Icelanders, and even conservative Icelanders have argued in favour of doing away with it altogether. That may have happened in 2020, but it quickly fell down the list of priorities once the pandemic struck.