The "One-Letter-War": or How Skagerrak Became a Disputed Name

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Peder Gammeltoft
The resolve of the naming dispute between Denmark, Norway and Sweden over the sea name Skagerrak has always been hailed as a prime example of how a naming dispute between countries over joint geographical name features should be handled and solved. This is a search into the story behind the scenes of the dispute and how the geographical name Skagerrak came to named, disputed and finally settled for national and international use.

The solving of the naming dispute did not come directly from the national geographical names committees, although their deliberations paved the way for the final resolve by the national mapping agencies.
Practical Implications: Useful for institutions seeking name dispute resolution.

Building on the extensive correspondence of almost fifty letters in the Danish Place-Name Commission’s journal archive, this naming dispute is shown to be of a rather different nature and resolve than has hitherto been believed. The findings have important implications for how international naming disputes have been perceived and should be undertaken in the future.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Maritime and Territorial Studies
Volume4
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)97-108
Number of pages12
ISSN2288-6834
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jan 2017

    Research areas

  • Faculty of Humanities - sea-names, onomastics, place-names, historical cartography, map-making, international standards, havnavne, navneforskning, historisk kartografi, kartografi, internationale standarder, international stednavnenormering, geographical names, geographical names standardization, political toponymy, stednavnepolitik, Skagerrak

ID: 172472120