 The range was named during the 1929–1930 Expedition to East Greenland by Lauge Koch after Danish mathematician Niels Erik Nørlund (1885–1980) and after the Alps, for the mountains form an impressive Alpine landscape.Norlund had been the director of the Geodætisk Institut between 1923 and 1955, as well as a member of the 1931–34 Three-year Expedition to East Greenland committee.The name was duly approved, but Norlund requested that it should not be printed on official maps until after his death.