Finnish name

The letter "y" denotes the vowel [y], not found in English, but similar to German "ü" and French "u".

Pronunciation of Swedish names is similar, but long vowels are not doubled and the stress may be on any syllable.

Finland has a long bilingual history and it is not unusual for Finnish speakers to have Swedish surnames or given names.

Until the early 20th century, Finland was a predominantly agrarian society and the names of West Finns were based on their association with a particular area, farm, or homestead (e.g. Jaakko Jussila 'Jaakko from the place of Jussi').

Farm names typically had the suffix -la, -lä, i.e. "(place) of", and could refer to the husband (like Jussila) or describe the location (e.g. Isoaho 'large clearing').

There, the Savonians pursued slash-and-burn agriculture which necessitated moving several times during a person's lifetime.

This in turn required the families to have surnames, which were in wide use among the common folk as early as the 13th century.

Typically, the oldest East Finnish surnames were formed from the first names of the patriarchs of the families (e.g. Ikävalko, Termonen, Pentikäinen).

In the East Finnish tradition, women carried the family name of their fathers in feminine form indicated by the -tar suffix (e.g. Puumalatar < Puumalainen).

By the 19th century, this practice fell into disuse due to the influence of Western European surname tradition.

Because the inhabitants often included farmhands and other non-family member, holders of the same surname are not necessarily genetically related.

The -nen suffix was freely interchanged with -son or -poika as late as the 16th century, but its meaning was ambiguous as it could refer not only to a "son", but any member of a patriarch's family, a farm or even a place.

By custom, all Finnish-speaking people who were able to get a position of some status in urban or learned society, discarded their Finnish name, adopting a Swedish, German or (in case of clergy) a Latin surname.

The oldest noble surnames of Swedish origin were not original, but were derived from the charges in the coat of arms, sigil and flag of the family, for example with Svärd (Swedish: "sword"), Kurki/Kurck (Finnish: "crane") and Kirves (Finnish: "axe").

At that time, many people with a Swedish or otherwise foreign surname changed their family name to a Finnish one.

An effect of industrialization was that large numbers of people moved to the cities and towns and had to adopt a surname.

Initially, these were in Swedish, and they were not very stable; people called them "superfluous names" (liikanimi), and a person could change one's surname several times during their career.

Some of the most common examples of this type are Laine "wave", Vainio "cultivated field", Nurmi "grassland", and Salo "grove".

A surname that is un-Finnish, contrary to the usages of the Swedish or Finnish languages, or in use by any person resident in Finland cannot be accepted as the new name, unless valid family reasons or religious or national customs give a reason for waiving this requirement.

Thus, the Finnish situation differs considerably from, for instance, Sweden, which has hundreds of thousands of Johanssons and Anderssons.

[18] For example, there are two Finnish cognates of George, Yrjö < Swedish Örjan and Jyri < Russian Юрий (Yuri).

[19] For example, a person given the Swedish name Gustaf in the parish register might be called Kustu as a child, Kusti as an adolescent, Kyösti or Köpi as an adult and Kustaa as an old man.

[20] In the early 19th century, almost all Finnish first names were taken from the official almanac, published by the Royal Academy of Turku, later by the University of Helsinki.

At the same time, the vicars gradually started to use Finnish name forms in parish registers.

The Act on Forenames and Surnames (Finnish: Etu- ja sukunimilaki; Swedish: Lag om för- och efternamn) of 2017, in force since 1 January 2019, requires that all Finnish citizens and residents have at least one and at the most four given names.

Persons who do not have a given name are obligated to adopt one when they are entered into the Finnish national population database.

In contrast to European tradition, the use of titles such as tohtori ("Doctor") with surnames is not very common and is found only in highly formal contexts or is considered old-fashioned.

As in Swedish culture, politeness is often expressed by indirect address such that the use of names may even be deliberately avoided.