Heitið

Heitið is an Icelandic noun that designates a name, designation, or epithet, and in its definite form, the word refers to "the name" or "the title" of a person, place, or work. The term derives from Old Norse heiti, meaning "name" or "designation," and is related to other Germanic terms for naming. In Icelandic literary and linguistic tradition, heiti is used to describe fixed epithets or appellations that identify a figure or thing, especially in historical poetry and sagas. In such contexts, a heiti functions as a conventional label rather than a descriptive phrase.

In modern Icelandic, the word appears in onomastics, bibliographic descriptions, and discussions of naming practices. It can denote the title of a work or a formal appellation attached to a person or object. In everyday language, however, nafn (name) and titill (title) are more common, and heiti tends to appear primarily in scholarly or philological contexts.

Examples of usage are typically found in dictionaries, linguistic descriptions, or critical texts on Old Norse and Icelandic literature, where a collection of traditional heiti may be discussed as part of kenningar or proper-name conventions. See also onomastics, epithet, kenning, skaldic poetry.