Administratively they belong to the Northeast Greenland National Park.

This island group was named by John Haller during the 1956–1958 Expedition to East Greenland led by Lauge Koch, to pay tribute to the work of the 1906–08 Denmark expedition.

A few years later the 1906–08 Denmark expedition had transferred the name "Franske Islands" to that position, corresponding to the northernmost islands the Duke of Orléans Arctic Expedition could have seen.

A number of maps, such as the World Aeronautical Charts of 1952, among others, retain the outdated names for this island group located further south —"Franske Islands" or Îles Françaises.

[1] The Danske Islands lie off the southern part of Jokel Bay, northwest of Île-de-France.