The Wiki page says Friday is named after the goddess Frigg.
Other articles say its both or Freyja, and there are some that say Frigg and Freyja are the same goddess.
Is there a consesus that I don't know about?
2 Answers
Friday is named for Frigg, see e.g. Gro Stensland's Fornnordisk Religion (if you can read Scandinavian) or Etymology Online. A few Icelandic writers appears to have called it "Freyjudagr" (it would for sure fit better with the Latin name), but this did not catch on and the modern name is derived from Frigg's.
For the question of identity, I will refer to this question.
A quote from Rudolf Simek's Dictionary of Northern Mythology will show how the word "Friday" is related to the name Frigga: .
..when the Roman week-day names were translated, Venus was so obviously identified as the Latin equivalent to Frigg that dies Veneris became OHG friatac, OE frigedeag [Engl. Friday]. In Scandinavia, interestingly enough, the South German word friadag waas taken over (ON friadagr) instead of a native name **Friggjadagr* being created. (94)
Grimm also noted that the form of the names for Friday relate to the name Frigg, not Freyja, although since he saw the two as more or less identical, it didn't worry him very much.
The mystery is why not Freyja, especially in Scandinavia, where she was more popular, and what was it about Frigg that made them think of Venus? Either there's more to her than we know, or they saw Venus differently from how we do.
