Who was St Kilda?

“Saint” in a place name usually indicates a past connection with a saint, as you would expect. But no St Kilda is known. So where did the name come from?

The Vikings arrived on the St Kilda Islands around 900 AD. It’s generally accepted the name comes from the Old Norse skildir (shield). Dutch maps from the 1500s show the name as Skilda or S. Kilda.

British chart makers apparently assumed S. Kilda meant St Kilda and the islands have been known as St Kilda ever since.