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by thomashabets2 1069 days ago
Söderhavet is the Pacific? But that makes no sense, geographically!
3 comments

Being an early adopter sucks.

In the early 16th century, Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and sighted the great "Southern Sea" which he named Mar del Sur (in Spanish). Afterwards, the ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favorable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacífico, which in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian means 'peaceful sea'.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ocean#Etymology)

Well, in order to preserve inaccurate silliness we did start calling it Stilla Havet instead ;) (transl: The Calm Ocean)
It's similar in Czech, "tichý oceán" - quiet ocean.
Translation: the Pacific Ocean
"Southern sea" sounds reasonable from the viewpoint of early Nordic seafarers. Based on a quick glance of the map, all of the Atlantic is south of Sweden.