Spitsbergen - Etymology

Etymology

Spitsbergen was named by its discoverer Willem Barentsz in 1596. The name Spitsbergen, meaning “pointed mountains” (from the Dutch spits - pointed, bergen - mountains), was at first applied to both the main island and the archipelago as a whole. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the islands were known as "Greenland" to the English whalers, a practice still followed in 1780 and criticized by Bacstrom at that time. The "Spitzbergen" spelling was used in English during the 19th century, for instance by Beechey, Laing, and the Royal Society.

In 1906, the Arctic explorer Sir Martin Conway was of the opinion that the Spitzbergen spelling was incorrect, preferring Spitsbergen, though this had little effect on British practice. In 1920 the treaty determining the fate of the islands was entitled the "Spitsbergen Treaty", and the islands were generally referred to in the USA as Spitsbergen from that time, although the spelling Spitzbergen was also commonly used through the 20th century. Under Norwegian governance the archipelago was named Svalbard in 1925, the main island becoming Spitsbergen, and by the end of the 20th century this usage had become general.