Norsemen giving Arctic islands misleading names

[dr_whom]

The story goes that Erik the Red named Greenland "Greenland" in hopes that the friendly-sounding name would attract settlers to what was in actuality a pretty inhospitable piece of real estate

Comments

[q10]

But Iceland is, in fact, relatively icy, at least by the standards of most obvious peer nation-states. (Though famously not by the standards of Greenland.)

[q10]

Also anybody who gets a chance to name a new Island in that general part of the world and doesn't name it ‘Frisland’ or ‘Hy-Brasil’ is missing a great trolling opportunity.

[dr_whom]

Well, those definitely have the advantage of sounding more hospitable than such an island is likely to be, I'll grant.

(Also I just learned that the Brazil nut tree and the brazilwood tree are completely unrelated, and the former is named after the country which is named after the latter.)

[inthelemonlight]

Haha! It's like how canaries < Canary Islands < dogs.

[dr_whom]

The same parallel example came to mind for me!