Scandinavia: Gazetteers

A gazetteer is a place name index with descriptions of the places. It contains the names of places listed in alphabetical order and lists which larger jurisdiction to which they belong. The gazetteer may also give map coordinates such as latitude and longitude or a description of the place. Examples are: farm (gård), village (by) which may list other information such as a schoolhouse, dairy, train station, mill, etc. Postal guides, and place name indexes are some of many forms of gazetteers describing places.

Gazetteers will use the native alphabet order and language of the country to which they refer. The alphabets for all the Scandinavian countries have letters that follow "Z" or have a few extra letters within their alphabet. They are as follows for Denmark and Norway: Æ æ, Ø ø, and Å å for Finland and Sweden: Å å, Ä ä, and Ö ö. The letter Å in these languages was written as Aa or aa earlier.

Iceland´s alphabet has several more letters and is as follows: A a Á á B b C c D d Ð ð E e É é F f G g H h I i Í í J j K k L l M m N n O o Ó ó P p Q q R r S s T t U u Ú ú V v W w X x Y y Ý ý Z z Þ þ (this is a "th" combination such as in the name "Thorstein" or "Thingeyer") Æ æ Ö ö