The name is derived from the Old Norse , from (“thing, assembly”) and (“field”), meaning "assembly fields". Compare the English ' and ' (“Thingweald”) from Anglo-Saxon and . The site takes its name from ("Althing"), the national parliament of Iceland, which was founded at in 930 and held its sessions there until 1798. A "thing" was a form of governing assembly found in Germanic societies, and a tradition that endures to this day in one form or another across Northern Europe.