Denmark Vikings At around year 1000 the Vikings lived throughout Scandinavia. The Vikings sailed all over Europe where they killed and looted everything. Last names as we know them today originated from the Vikings. The Vikings took their father's name and added -sen or -son, which means son. One might be named Harald Erikson, his name is Harald and he is the son of Erik. Similar surnames are Jensen, Hansen, Anderson and so on. The Viking Erik the Red (due to his aggression), sailed to Iceland and Greenland. He first arrived on the icy side of Iceland and named it Iceland. But Iceland is mostly green he just arrived at the wrong place. Erik wanted to create "tourism" so he could make money that way, but nobody in cold Denmark wanted to go to even colder sounding Iceland! Therefore when he came to the next icy landmass he named it Greenland to trick people. Some Vikings also went all the way to North America, but they didn't find any gold or valuables and therefore didn't go back. The Vikings had a lot of "fun" with the UK. They looted many churches and took all the valuables. They were barbaric and are known for killing the men and children whereafter they raped the women and left them pregnant.