The mostly icy island of Greenland has been a part of a centuries-long marketing campaign, resulting in a puzzling name with a fascinating history.
The Danish territory is again in the news as PresidentDonald TrumpsaysGreenland should become part of the United States.
But don't be confused: The island is anything but green. Greenland is mostly covered by a massive ice sheet, as it has been for the better part of the past several millennia.
The story of Greenland's name weaves together sly marketing, climate change and the Vikings. While Erik the Red selected the name in hopes that it would attract more people to the icy island, now the island is actually getting (a little) more green as its ice sheet melts.
Why does Trump want Greenland?Polls show a US takeover is unpopular
Greenland's marketing gimmick
"The origin of Greenland's name is the result of pure commercial marketing," saidArizona State University geography professor Randall Cerveny, in an email to USA TODAY.
"In one of the Icelandic Sagas (their preserved historical documents dating back a thousand years), it is written that the Icelandic discoverer of Greenland, Erik the Red, 'left to settle in the country he had found, which he called Greenland, as he said people would be attracted there if it had a favorable name.'"
According toDiscover Iceland, "Erik the Red wanted more people to settle there, so thought if it had a pleasant-sounding name people would be more likely to move there."
That was around 1000 AD, Cerveny said.
However, in the island's native language, the name of the island isKalaallit Nunaat, or "land of the Kalaallit." The Kalaallit are the native Inuit who inhabit the territory's western region, Cerveny said.
Greenland hasn't always been this icy
One twist in the Greenland naming saga: The island likely wasn't quite as icy when it was named.
While it's been mostly icy for millennia, Greenland experienced localized greening during the Medieval Warm Period (around 900-1300 AD) when Vikings settled there.
But even at the height of the Medieval Warm Period, the vast majority of Greenland was still ice-covered, as much as 80%.
Now,new research published in 2025said that because of global warming,Greenland's ice sheet is melting fast – and is being replaced by vegetation.
Indeed, parts of Greenland are becoming green again for the first time since the Vikings visited nearly 1,000 years ago, according to study co-authorJonathan Carrivick, an Earth scientist at theUniversity of Leedsin the United Kingdom.
And where there was once snow and ice just a few decades ago, there are now areas of shrub, along with barren rock and wetlands, the 2024studyreported.
An estimated 11,000 square miles of Greenland's ice sheet and glaciers have melted over the past three decades, the study reports.
Overall, the total area of ice loss in the past 30 years is slightly greater than the size of Massachusetts and represents about 1.6% of Greenland's total ice and glacier cover.
Iceland's name adds to the confusion
Interestingly, neighboring Iceland was named by Vikings for actually being icy, even though Greenland is arguably far more desolate.
One of the Icelandic Sagas declares that the name of Iceland originated from Flóki Vilgerðarson, the first Viking to intentionally travel and stay on Iceland around 850 AD.
"According to one of the Sagas, Flóki coined the name, after a long, harsh winter camp there, when he climbed a mountain, and saw a huge, icy-filled fjord and named the island accordingly,"Cerveny told USA TODAY.
The two names really don't match climatological reality.
For example, Greenland set the coldest recorded temperature in the Northern Hemisphere at an unimaginably cold 93.3 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.
It's also covered by a massive ice sheet that's some two miles thick at some points.Meanwhile, Iceland ‒ though it has glaciers ‒ benefits from warmer ocean currents and is far more habitable and "green" around populated lowlands.
Do you know how big Greenland is?
Greenland covers more than 836,000 square miles ‒ three times the size of Texas, with about 80% covered by a massive ice cap.
The limitations of flat maps mean the island appears on paper smaller or larger than it is. On some maps, it looks similar in size to Africa.
Maps don't show Greenland's true size.Here's how big it actually is.
Why is this? Greenland looks huge on some maps, especially standard Mercator projections, because it's near the North Pole, and these maps stretch polar regions to fit the spherical Earth onto a flat surface, making high-latitude landmasses appear disproportionately huge compared to their actual size.
Contributing: Michelle Del Rey and Stephen J. Beard
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Greenland is icy, cold and desolate. How did it get that name?
