The village and the island on where it is located are both called Svínoy, which means ‘Island of Pigs’.
The population in Svínoy is decreasing over time. 40 years ago 200 people lived there. Now there are only 55 people left.
The village lies in the bottom of a bay on the east coast of the island. A small road leads through the valley to the west side of the island. Here is a harbour that is visited once or twice a day by the ferry from Hvannasund on the island Viðoy.
The helicopter also visits Svínoy 3 times a week.

The church in Svínoy is from 1878.

A legend tells how Svínoy got its funny name.
Svínoy originally was a drift-island. It was also hidden in fog the most of the time so altogether it was seldom seen.
In the village of Viðareiði on the island of Viðoy they had a sow but no boar. Even so the sow had young  ones every year. People in Viðareiði were puzzled over this. It was said that sometimes the sow could not
be found in the village but it always turned up again after a while.
One day the sow was hasting through the village. A woman got hold of it and tied a bunch of keys to its tail. The sow was released and hasted down to the sea and jumped into the water. It started swimming off from the land. After a while the people in Viðareiði saw an island emerging from the south. They rushed into a boat and rowed towards the island. They were now able to see it and to go on land on it. As the pig with the keys had brought iron to the drift-island it immediately was fixed to the bottom of the sea. It has stayed there ever after. As there were many pigs on the island and it was a pig that turned the island from a drift-island into a fixed-island the island was called Svínoy, ‘Island of Pigs’.
It was after visiting this island every year that the sow had young ones.