The name "Scandinavia" is most probably derived from the Germanic *Skathin- meaning "danger" (cf. English scathing and unscathed) and *awjo meaning "island". It may have referred to the dangerous banks around Skanör-Falsterbo in Scania in southernmost Scandinavia. Alternatively, the first element is sometimes attributed to the Norse goddess of winter, Skadi. In Beowulf we meet the form Scedenigge. The form Scadinavia appears in Roman texts, and in Jordanes' history of the Goths (AD 551) we meet the form Scandza their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4).

The name of the Scandinavian mountain range, Skanderna in Swedish, is artificially derived from Skandinavien in the 19th century, in analogy with Alperna for the Alps. The commonly used names are Kölen "the Keel" or fjällen "the fells, the mountains".

Gangavia is another form used by old sources, e.g. Paulus Diaconus' Historia Langobardorum, too.