I noticed that, on OpenStreetMaps, some houses have names of Icelandic places additional to the house number. This is an example of a map of Grindavík. Does these names have a special meaning? Or is just someone messing with the maps?
by lordgurke
I noticed that, on OpenStreetMaps, some houses have names of Icelandic places additional to the house number. This is an example of a map of Grindavík. Does these names have a special meaning? Or is just someone messing with the maps?
by lordgurke
4 comments
Some houses have names, like farms do. It is more common in rural areas, and in the older parts of towns.
Fun fact I grew up in that house called Brú, I don’t know for sure why they have names but I always thought it was something like when the town was still small enough the houses didn’t have actual addresses but just names and that would be enough to explain where you lived, not sure how true that is though.
Farms have names and sometimes people build their farms close together. Over time the farms are so many it turns into a town.
The older houses in small towns often have names similar to those of farms. When people were moving into those towns from the rural areas I expect they preferred to name their houses like that, as they were used to.