Öllum götum skal nafn gefa

Abstract

In the article street names are discussed from a variety of viewpoints. The order of the content is laid out in the first chapter. The second chapter looks at laws which deal with street names (nr. 73/1977 and nr. 35/1953) and regulation nr. 136 for the work of the place name committee. In the third chapter examples are given of the working practice when choosing names. Sometimes suggestions are requested from individuals or groups, sometimes special committees are appointed and in yet other cases building committees of municipalities are entrusted with forming suggestions for names. The fourth chapter deals with the city of Reykjavík in particular, the oldest names there and naming committees and the fifth chapter tells of the official work group of the city of Rekjavík and the suggestions it has made for street names in new areas. The penultimate chapter discusses suffixes in street names in the greater Reykjavík area, of which there were 107 in March 2009. The suffixes show that for street names there is a tradition of looking to the surrounding environment when choosing suffixes. In the final chapter the contents of the article are summarized.