# Don't Iceland volcanos have names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132 "2024-01-15T19:43:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/1 "2024-01-15T19:43:37Z")
In the recent news articles about volcanoes in Iceland, they never refer to the volcano by name. Seems odd. Perhaps it’s because the last volcano to erupt, and spewed so much into the atmosphere that it disrupted air traffic, was unpronounceable: Eyjafjallajökull. [Here’s today’s news story.](https://www.npr.org/2024/01/15/1224795757/iceland-volcano-grindavik) ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/2 "2024-01-15T20:04:41Z")
> **[Sundhnúkur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundhn%C3%BAkur)** > > Sundhnúkur (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Icelandic pronunciation: \[ˈsʏntˌn̥uːkʏr̥\]) is a crater row and volcanic fissure in Iceland, part of the Reykjanes Peninsula rift zone. It is the location of the 2023-2024 Sundhnúkur eruptions. > On the evening of 18 December 2023, a volcanic eruption occurred at Sundhnúkur north of Grindav... ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/3 "2024-01-15T20:14:00Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Eyjafjallajökull They were likely all named 1000 years ago in Old Norse, of which Icelandic is the closest to amongst the Norse languages. And aren’t NPR articles essentially what they read for news reports? I don’t think they’d want to touch this one. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/4 "2024-01-15T20:33:49Z")
Or is there one big volcano called “Iceland”? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/5 "2024-01-15T20:38:35Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Perhaps it’s because the last volcano to erupt, and spewed so much into the atmosphere that it disrupted air traffic, was unpronounceable: Eyjafjallajökull. My understanding is that for Icelanders that name is easy to pronounce. 😜 ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/6 "2024-01-15T20:48:23Z")
But for the rest of the world? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/7 "2024-01-15T20:54:37Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > he rest of the world If they want volcanoes with names easy for them to pronounce, they should just get their own volcanoes. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/8 "2024-01-15T20:55:13Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Eyjafjallajökull Pronounced “Kull”. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/9 "2024-01-15T20:58:01Z")
Katla did erupt not long after the “E” volcano. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/10 "2024-01-15T21:57:41Z")
I’m guessing that there were one or two early stories that didn’t name the volcano, and then all the other stories you were seeing just got their information from those original one or two. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/11 "2024-01-15T22:16:05Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Eyjafjallajökull Which is actually pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/12 "2024-01-15T22:47:32Z")
Just as an aside, Iceland is an amazing place. People don’t have surnames. Just patronyms…and gender-specific ones at that. There’s only about 500,000 people in the whole country. The whole island is a geological Wonderland: volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, hot springs . They have letters in their alphabet that were dropped from English 1000 years ago ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/13 "2024-01-15T22:53:18Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > People don’t have last names. Well, my understanding is that they **do** , but they’re different from how surnames work in most other Western languages. In Icelandic, your surname is a direct reference to your father (or sometimes your mother), rather than being a family name. _Edit: I see you added similar information after I composed my post._ As Wikipedia describes it: > [@](#): > > A man named _[Jón](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B3n) [Einarsson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einar)_ has a son named _[Ólafur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93lafur)_. Ólafur’s last name will not be _Einarsson_ like his father’s; it will become _Jónsson_, indicating that _Ólafur_ is the son of _Jón_ (Jóns + son). The same practice is used for daughters. Jón Einarsson’s daughter \*[Sigríður](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigr%C3%AD%C3%B0ur)’\*s last name would not be _Einarsson_ but _Jónsdóttir_. Again, the name means “Jón’s daughter” (Jóns + dóttir). > > In some cases, an individual’s surname is derived from a parent’s second given name instead of the first. For example, if Jón is the son of Hjálmar Arnar Vilhjálmsson, he may either be named Jón Hjálmarsson (Jón, son of Hjálmar) or Jón Arnarsson (Jón, son of Arnar). The reason for this may be that the parent prefers to be called by the second given name instead of the first; this is fairly common. It may also be that the parent’s second name seems to fit the child’s first name better. > [@](#): > > The vast majority of Icelandic last names carry the name of the father, but occasionally the mother’s name is used: e.g. if the child or mother wishes to end social ties with the father. Some women use it as a social statement while others simply choose it as a matter of style. > **[Icelandic name](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name)** > > Icelandic names are names used by people from Iceland. Icelandic surnames are different from most other naming systems in the modern Western world in that they are patronymic or occasionally matronymic: they indicate the father (or mother) of the child and not the historic family lineage. Iceland shares a common cultural heritage with the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Unlike these countries, Icelanders have continued to use their traditional name system, which was forme... ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/14 "2024-01-16T00:15:07Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > The whole island is a geological Wonderland: volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, hot springs . There’s an xkcd for that > **[Iceland](https://xkcd.com/2874/)** > > The HVAC bill for installing the Gulf Stream was enormous. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/15 "2024-01-16T02:51:13Z")
I remember a show about Icelandic volcanos, probably PBS’ “NOVA”, where that “E” volcano had its name spliced in, probably voiced by someone who pronounced it correctly, and they took it from there. Things like that remind me of the Chelyabinsk incident, when initial news reports showed people running away from broken glass and the like, and I could picture Russian speakers laughing and telling each other, “Whoa, the censors at that channel don’t know what those people said!” and by the time NOVA did a program on it, the clips were heavily bleeped. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/16 "2024-01-16T18:17:33Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > My understanding is that for Icelanders that name is easy to pronounce. 😜 If it helps, “jökull” just means “ice field” or “glacier”. Lots of ice-capped mountains in Iceland end in that. Other than that it’s just a five syllable word, which is above average, but not excessively so. If we English was agglutinative and we called it “Themissisippiriver” that would be a mouth-full, too for anyone who didn’t know how to break it down. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2024, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/17 "2024-01-17T21:51:59Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > Themissisippiriver It would also ruin counting time for various games: One themissisippiriver. Two themissisippiriver. Three themissisippiriver. The quarterback would have waaay too much time in the pocket before you could rush him. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/18 "2024-01-19T08:06:13Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > it disrupted air traffic, was unpronounceable: Eyjafjallajökull. Have fun: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7hhziJTtMiE/maxresdefault.jpg "How to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hhziJTtMiE) ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2024, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/19 "2024-01-19T12:45:29Z")
Back to the OP: maybe the point is that this isn’t a volcano like Etna or Vesuvius or a single named point erupting, this is a series of fissures - the earth just opening up in unpredictable directions across a wide area. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dont-iceland-volcanos-have-names/996132/20 "2024-01-26T00:29:28Z")
No. For one thing, this peninsular area near the capital has basaltic magma, and it forms shield volcanoes This is due to the fault there widening and its mantle magma coming up, same as a hotspot like Hawaii. Elsewhere in Iceland the magma forms granite and strata volcanoes,. which are related to slip strike and subduction faults. There’s the intersection of three faults in the area , so you can have the 4 zones , one zone each for the plate pairings, and the middle zone where its less well defined.