Eveeeery One is in the Phone Book

The Icelandic phone book lists everyone by their first names! Then comes the last name, then address, then occupation [to set you apart you from all the other Jón Jónssons of course] and finally the phone number.

With only 320,000 people, it isn’t the thickest book.

Everyone is listed by their first names in the phone book because here we call everyone by their first names. No one uses Mr or Mrs. Not even as small children. Your teacher is Gunna. Your friend’s dad is Jón. Your president is Óli. Your Prime Minister is Geir. Your friendly local pop star is Björk. And so on. The best part about Iceland is that even the prime minister is in the phone book!

Fun fact: The phone book has a cartoon on every page [it’s actually a full story]