Icelandic Genealogical Word List

This list contains Icelandic words with their English translations. The words included here are those that you are likely to find in genealogical sources. If the word you are looking for (or some form of it) is not on this list, please consult an Icelandic-English dictionary. (See the “Additional Resources” section below.)

Icelandic is a Germanic language like Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. It is the purest form of the “Old Norse” language that exists today. It was brought to the country by the Norsemen, who settled Iceland. Icelandic has been a written language for more than 900 years and has remained relatively unchanged.

Iceland was under Danish rule until 1918. Records written before the mid 1800s may include Danish and some Latin words. Note that in the 1801 census, Danish and to some extent Latin, rather than Icelandic, are used throughout the text. See the Danish Language and Languages and the Italy Latin Genealogical Word List.

Variant Forms of Words
In Icelandic, as in English, the forms of some words vary according to how they are used in a sentence. Who—whose—whom and marry—marries—married are examples of words in English with variant forms. The endings of a word in a document may differ from those in this list. For example:

Alphabetical Order
Written Icelandic uses the following letters not found in the English alphabet: á, ð, é, í, ó, ú, ý, þ, æ, ö. The letters þ, æ, and ö are alphabetized after z. This word list, like most Icelandic dictionaries and indexes, uses the following alphabetical order:

a á b c d ð e é f g h i í j k l m n o ó p q r s t u ú v w x y

ý z þ æ ö

If you do not find a word in the alphabetical order listed above, search forward and backward in the dictionary, index, or word list until you locate the word.

Spelling
Spelling rules were not standardized in earlier centuries. Words were written as they sounded. Because Iceland was under Danish rule so long, and because many officials were Danish or had been educated in Denmark, Danish influence was prominent in vocabulary and style until the late eighteenth century.

In the 1703, 1801, and 1816 censuses and in the oldest church registers, the following phonetic or spelling variations are common:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
This word list includes only words most commonly found in genealogical sources. For more help, use an Icelandic-English dictionary. Several are available at the Family History Library in the International collection. The call numbers begin with 439.6321.

Some helpful dictionaries include:

Cleasby, Richard, et al. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957. (FHL book Scand 439.6321 C558li; not available on film or fiche.)

Bogason, Sigurður Örn. Ensk-Íslenzk Orðabók (English-Icelandic Dictionary). Reykjavik: Ísafoldarprentsmiðja H.F., 1976. (FHL book Scand 439.6321 B633e; film 0407215.)

The following English-Icelandic dictionary is available through most bookstores that carry Icelandic books:

Sören Sörenson. Ensk-íslensk orðabók með alfræðilegu ívafi. Reykjavík: Örn og Örlygur, 1984.

Additional dictionaries are listed in the Place search of the Family History Library Catalog under

ICELAND—LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGES—DICTIONARIES.

KEY WORDS
In order to find specific types of information in Icelandic records, you will need to know some key words in Icelandic. This section lists key genealogical terms in English and the Icelandic words that convey the concept.

For example, in the first column you find the word marriage. In the second column you find Icelandic words with meanings such as married, married couple, bridal pair, and other words used in Icelandic records to indicate marriage.

GENERAL WORD LIST
This general word list includes words commonly seen in genealogical sources, including words for occupations, illnesses, and causes of death. Numbers, months, and days of the week are listed both here and in separate sections that follow this list. Words in parentheses in the English column clarify the definition.

Numbers
In Icelandic genealogical records, numbers are occasionally spelled out. This is especially true of dates. The following list gives the cardinal (1, 2, 3) and the ordinal (1st, 2nd, 3rd) versions of each number. In actual usage, days of the month are written in ordinal form.

Dates and Time
Use the terms in this section and the “Numbers” section to interpret dates.

Months of the Year

Days of the Week