Nordic Names Blog - New Icelandic Names 2023-01

19 February 2023
In January 2023, 16 names were submitted to the Icelandic naming committee for approval. 16 of them were approved and 1 was rejected:

Female Names

• Adolfína: This Icelandic spelling of Adolfina was approved.
• Hyrrokkin: This name of a jǫtunn in the Norse mythology was approved. It means 'the one who has withered from fire'.
• Kisa: This name also means 'kitten' in Icelandic and is strongly associated with cats so its usage as a human given name was rejected.
• Klaría: This Icelandic spelling of Claria was approved.
• Nathalía: Previously, only the spelling without the h was accepted in Iceland. This variant spelling had been rejected in August 2020 but was now approved.
• Sólbráð: This Icelandic vocabulary name means 'sun-thaw', 'thawing of (the uppermost layer of) snow or ice in sunlight (though the air temperature is still below zero)' and it was approved.
• Valía: This Icelandic spelling of Valia was approved.
• Æja: This Icelandic variant spelling of Eja was approved as well.

Male Names

• Amir: This name of Arabic origin was approved.
• Bendt: This creative spelling of Bent was approved to be used in Iceland as well.
• Hakim: Another name of Arabic origin, which was approved in January. It means 'judge', 'ruler'.
• Kenny: This English pet form of Kenneth was approved.
• Múr: This name of unknown origin and meaning was approved. The literal meaning in Icelandic would be 'brick wall', so a relation does not seem likely?
• Sonny: Another English name, which was approved now. It means 'little son'
• Xavier: This name deriving from a Basque place name meaning 'new house' was approved.
• Zachary: This English derivation of the Hebrew name זְכַרְיָה (Zecharyah) meaning 'Yahweh (God) remembers' was approved.

See also

For more information and new Icelandic names of other months see Icelandic Approved Names.