Icelandic names can be difficult to pronounce, spell and understand when being spoken, especially for someone that doesn’t know the language. Even though, Icelandic people are pretty laid back about many things, mainly because they live in a world where flexibility of plans is a crucial part of their survival, they take their names seriously. I will first start out with explaining the structure of Icelandic names, and then I will delve a bit deeper into the fascinating rules and unique cultural aspects of this system.


Structure of Icelandic Names
In Iceland, a native person’s last name is usually a combination of their father’s first name and if they are his daughter or son. I say usually because this system is mostly patronymic. However, there are people whose last name is a combination of their mother’s first name and if they are her daughter or son.

For example, let’s say there is a woman named Guðrún who has a father with the first name Jón. Her name will be Guðrún Jónsdóttir, or literally Guðrún the daughter of Jón. If there is a man named Guðmundur and his father´s first name is Helgi, his name will be Guðmundur Helgason.  Literally, his name is  Guðmundur the son of Helgi. You might have noticed that the names Jón and Helgi changed a little bit when they became last names (Jónsdóttir and Helgason). This has to do with the structure of the Icelandic language and how words are declined depending on the grammatical case they are in.

Additionally, someone’s last name can be a combination of their parent’s middle name and their gender.  Some Icelandic people prefer to be called by their middle name rather than their first name. In fact, an Icelander might decide that their middle fits the child’s name better when made into a last name.
An Easy System to Learn
While this system might confusing at first, the good news is that the learning curve for understanding this system is fairly easy. If you know an Icelandic person’s full name, you will know right away if they are male or female. This can be helpful, especially since some Icelandic first names are quite unique. For instance, it might be hard for a foreigner to know if someone named Guðbjörg is male or female. Just for the record, it is a female name.  Random side note, I am curious to see how Iceland’s system adapts to individuals that do not conform to a gender, but I won’t be diving into that topic today.
A Country (Mostly) Without Family Names
Because an Icelandic person’s last name is dependent on one of their parent’s first names and their gender, there are mostly no family names. For example, a family of four that has two parents and two kids, one male and the other female, will all have different last names. In the following example, I will do my best to explain this. However, if it gets confusing, please check out the list of names for the family below.

Gunnar Guðmundsson is married to Katrín Einarsdóttir. They have two kids, a daughter named Guðný and a son named Björgvin. The parents have decided to take the traditional route and the kids last names will have the father’s first name. The full names of the kids are Guðný Gunnarsdóttir and Björgvin Gunnarsson. When you look at all of the names spelled out in a row, they are all different.
Icelandic Family of 4 (Example)


Gunnar Guðmundsson
Katrín Einardóttir
Guðný Gunnarsdóttir
Björgvin Gunnarsson

Of course, same sex siblings, such as brothers, will have the same last name in a family as long as they share the same father or mother whose first or middle name is being used for their last name.

Icelandic people do not see this system as strange. However,  the majority of people from other countries are shocked to hear this fact. Finding this out made Iceland even more intriguing to me, and it might even do the same for you.

While the surname system that I mentioned to you is the most common in Iceland, there are some people that have family names. There are very few family names here.