The Names of the Great Houses of Westeros, Explored and Explained

House Greyjoy

The second strictly English name on this list is “Greyjoy.” The term “grey” derives from the same Proto-Indo-European root as “green,” which originally meant “to grow,” and probably referred to plants. The colors of green and grey play important roles in Ironborn society. Ironborn nobility consider themselves descendants of the Grey King; they are tough as grey iron, as opposed to the weak Greenlanders who live on the mainland.

The Ironborn hold agriculture in contempt; anyone in the business of growing (green) plants is considered weak. Grey is the color of dead plants, the color of ash, which is all that’s left of the mainlanders’ crops after the Ironborn have robbed and killed them. It is a color of death, as befits worshippers of the Drowned God.