769: faroe islands and shetland islands Jan 15, 2017

While often people and the places where they live are named for the indigenous (or historically indigenous) language's word for the people, such as England or other places discussed here, this is not the only way places gain their native names. The Faroe Islands, for example were named from the Old Norse word for 'sheep', even though the animal was only brought to the island a while after it was settled by humans. Also, the Shetland Islands were not named after the inhabitants, but the Norse name, Hjaltland comes either from the word for 'hilt' as a reference to its shape, or from a Pictish word for 'cat' as they were believed to exist on the islands before people. Interestingly, the postal code, ZE for the Shetlands came from an earlier spelling of ʒaltland with the letter, yogh pronounced the same as the HJ. Printing presses didn't feature this character and it was often written with a Z.