Greenland - It was the early Scandinavian settlers who gave the country the name Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, it is said that the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. Along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding a habitable area and settling there, he named it Grœnland (translated as "Greenland"), supposedly in the hope that the pleasant name would attract settlers.

Iceland - "Land of Ice", from Old Norse Ísland, from íss ("ice"). Owing to the reports on the origin of the name Greenland, Iceland has been folk etymologized to have arisen as an attempt to dissuade outsiders from attempting to settle the land. However, according to the Landnámabók, the early explorer and settler Flóki Vilgerôarson gave the island the name after spotting "a firth [or fjord] full of drift ice" to the north. According to various alternative but not widely accepted theories, such as those advanced by pyramidologist Adam Rutherford or writer Einar Pálsson (in his book The Celtic Heritage,) the origin of the name Ís-land lies either with the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis or with Jesus