Names of Iceland IS

In Iceland the second name is a patronymic — the father's given name, renewed each generation — rather than an inherited family name; Hagstofa Íslands — most common ættarnöfn (Hagtíðindi 2018) records Blöndal as the commonest surname in Iceland.

Written in Icelandic.

Population
351K
Official registers
6
Name forms recorded
3.9K
ABuilt from 6 official registers (2023), 2 sub-national, 3,874 name forms in our corpus, 9 cited works.

Official registers for given names and surnames, plus a written account of the naming system.

The account of the naming system rests on encyclopaedia and genealogy sources; it has not yet been checked against onomastic literature.

fewerlarger share
Where the names most characteristic of Iceland are borne outside it — the same spelling, counted in our record corpus. Shares are of all bearers of those names anywhere, Iceland included.

How names work in Iceland

Names in Iceland follow one naming tradition. Its structure, its given-name and surname stock, how to address someone and what trips software up are set out on its own page.

The most common names in Iceland

Counts everyone resident in the country · authority tier 1
Hagstofa — population register names 2023, 2023 — 101 given names counted over residents, girls only, as the register publishes them.
#NameBearers recordedOur rank
1Anna4.8K—
2Guðrún4.5K60
3Kristín3.4K—
4Sigríður3.2K89
5Margrét/margrjet/margret2.8K—
6Helga2.7K27
7Sigrún2.5K—
8Ingibjörg2.1K—
9María2K—
10Jóhanna1.9K—
11Katrín1.6K—
12Elín1.6K131
13Eva1.5K—
14Hildur1.5K—
15Sara1.4K—
16Lilja1.4K—
17Elísabet/elísabeth1.3K—
18Ragnheiður1.2K—
19Ásta1.2K—
20Guðbjörg1.2K126

No inherited surnames here

Icelandic naming is patronymic (Jónsson/Jónsdóttir) and inherited family names (ættarnöfn) have been legally closed to new adoption since 1925, so the stock is a small fixed list — 639 harvested from is-hagstofa-aettarnofn and is-arnastofnun-aettarnofn, which is close to complete. The high-value Icelandic target is GIVEN names plus the Mannanafnaskrá approved-names register, not surnames. Our record corpus does hold "surnames" for this country, but they are largely records of residents from elsewhere, so we do not publish them as a ranking.

Where the two lists disagree

25 of Hagstofa — population register names 2023's top 25 given names sit five or more places away in our record corpus. Neither ranking is wrong; they count different people.

Hagstofa — population register names 2023 2023Across all recordsanna: 1 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country1. annanot rankedguðrún: 2 → 60 · ranks lower across all records2. guðrún60kristín: 3 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country3. kristínnot rankedsigríður: 4 → 89 · ranks lower across all records4. sigríður89margrét/margrjet/margret: 5 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country5. margrét/margrjet/margretnot rankedhelga: 6 → 27 · ranks lower across all records6. helga27sigrún: 7 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country7. sigrúnnot rankedingibjörg: 8 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country8. ingibjörgnot rankedmaría: 9 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country9. maríanot rankedjóhanna: 10 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country10. jóhannanot rankedkatrín: 11 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country11. katrínnot rankedelín: 12 → 131 · ranks lower across all records12. elín131eva: 13 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country13. evanot rankedhildur: 14 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country14. hildurnot rankedsara: 15 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country15. saranot rankedlilja: 16 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country16. liljanot rankedelísabet/elísabeth: 17 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country17. elísabet/elísabethnot rankedragnheiður: 18 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country18. ragnheiðurnot rankedásta: 19 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country19. ástanot rankedguðbjörg: 20 → 126 · ranks lower across all records20. guðbjörg126erla: 21 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country21. erlanot rankedauður: 22 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country22. auðurnot rankedsteinunn: 23 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country23. steinunnnot rankedguðný: 24 → 303 · ranks lower across all records24. guðný303kolbrún: 25 → not ranked · not in our corpus’s top ranks for this country25. kolbrúnnot ranked
Hover a line for what is available to explain that row.
Hagstofa — population register names 2023, 2023 on the left; every record we hold for Iceland on the right. A dashed line means the name is not in our top ranks for this country at all.

The register counts one population in one year — everyone it enumerates, once. Our corpus counts records: historical registers going back decades, the diaspora, business and place records, and several generations of births. A name that was common two generations ago outranks a name common today; a name whose spelling scatters across sources (diacritics dropped, transliterated differently) loses ground, because only its dominant spelling is ranked.

Characteristic of Iceland

Not the most common names — the most distinctive ones. A name appears here when Iceland holds a larger share of its bearers than the world does, weighted by how much of the country's whole name distribution it accounts for.

EinarJóhannÓlafurGuðrúnÁrniHelgaSigríðurWilliamRagnarPéturIngiJamesKarlGuðbjörgKristinnJeanMargrétÞórunnHalldóraÍslandi
Sized by how much of the difference between Iceland's name distribution and the world's this name accounts for. Hover for its share here against its share worldwide.(measured from records)

Over time

JónAnnaGuðrúnSigurðurGuðmundur202620264,890
Þjóðskrá Íslands — Name frequencies (NafnTíðni, registry), 2004–2026 (23 years). The line is that register's own figure for each year — not a total across registers, which would count the same people twice. The publisher labels this series “stock”.

Up to five names at a time.

Scripts & spelling

Bigsurname(measured from records)
Jamesgiven name(measured from records)
Williamgiven name(measured from records)
Einargiven name(measured from records)
Helgagiven name(measured from records)
The best-attested names in Iceland, in the spelling our records use there. Where a Latin spelling is also attested it is shown beneath — a spelling from the corpus, not a machine romanisation.

Countries whose names look alike

Measured as the overlap between each country's top 300 given-name forms, weighted by how common each is — the fuzzy-set approach of Lauc (2024), on a truncated inventory.

Registers & sources

Official registers

Sub-national registers

2 registers for Iceland publish regional lists only (Hagstofa Íslands — Icelandic names and naming practice (2018): 2016 newborn top-3; Hagstofa Íslands — Icelandic names and naming practice (2018): overall most-frequent). A regional list is not a national one, and summing regions would be an aggregate the publisher never made, so no figure on this page comes from them.

Cited works

Behind this page's own account — its one-line answer, its explanation of why the rankings differ, and the notes on its registers. Each naming tradition cites its own sources on its page. Not yet checked against onomastic literature.

About this data

Official figures are reproduced from the register named beside them, at the year named beside them, and are never combined across registers. The "across all records" ranking counts records in our own corpus — historical registers, the diaspora, business and place records — and is not a population count. Bearer estimates are omitted where a name accounts for more than a quarter of a country's records, because the estimate is not defensible there. Names listed by reference works and licensed name dictionaries are cited as attesting a name; their figures are not published.

Data snapshot: 2026-10-09.

Questions

What is the most common given name in Iceland?
Anna, according to Hagstofa — population register names 2023 (2023), with 4,782 bearers recorded among girls.
What is the most common surname in Iceland?
Blöndal, according to Hagstofa Íslands — most common ættarnöfn (Hagtíðindi 2018) (2017), with 324 bearers recorded.
Why do sources disagree about the commonest name in Iceland?
Because they count different people. Hagstofa — population register names 2023 (2023) counts one population once, and its commonest given name is Anna. Our corpus counts every record we hold — historical registers, the diaspora, decades of births — and its commonest is James. Both are on this page, each with its denominator.
Do people in Iceland have surnames?
Icelandic naming is patronymic (Jónsson/Jónsdóttir) and inherited family names (ættarnöfn) have been legally closed to new adoption since 1925, so the stock is a small fixed list — 639 harvested from is-hagstofa-aettarnofn and is-arnastofnun-aettarnofn, which is close to complete. The high-value Icelandic target is GIVEN names plus the Mannanafnaskrá approved-names register, not surnames.

Cite this page: Mondonomo, “Names of Iceland”, https://mondonomo.ai/names/IS (data snapshot 2026-10-09). Official figures from Hagstofa — population register names 2023; Hagstofa Íslands — most common ættarnöfn (Hagtíðindi 2018).