Appendix:Finnish surnames

Main category: Finnish surnames

See also: Finnish surnames on Wikipedia

Surnames have only been required by Finnish law since 1921. Prior to this, surnames were not used in all regions, or had only been adopted recently. Western Finland traditionally used "surnames" (closer to epithets rather than family names) based on names of farms and farmsteads, the names of which often ended in -la; this suffix remains common in Finnish surnames today. Farmsteads themselves tended to be named after their owners or after natural features. They could also be named after existing surnames, in which case the suffix -nen (or sometimes even other suffixes) was replaced with -la. In some cases, patronymics were also used, although these were not as widespread and very few patronymics remain as surnames today; indeed, it is much more common, albeit still not common, to encounter patronymics as middle names than as surnames.

Eastern Finland had been using surnames for longer. Savonians and Karelians tended to practice slash-and-burn agriculture (besides hunting and fishing), which, requiring a lot of land, motivated a somewhat nomadic lifestyle and thus the use of surnames. This system of surnames appears to have been fully developed already in the Middle Ages. Savonian surnames often used the suffix -nen/-inen, originally of diminutive meaning, and the suffix is ubiquitous in Finnish surnames today. Sources for Savonian and Karelian surnames included the names of forebears as well as bynames or nicknames given to people based on their features.

Thus, in both Western and Eastern Finland, it was not uncommon for given names to end up as surnames. Many of these names of foreign origin, from languages like Swedish, other Germanic languages (like Low German, High German or Frisian) or Russian, have fallen out of use as given names and persist only in surnames.

Swedish speakers in Finland tended to carry their Swedish surnames over to Finland, but a Swedish surname is not necessarily an indication of Swedish ancestry. For one, Swedish surnames were also adopted by townspeople and artisans, even if they were not of Swedish ancestry nor even Swedish-speaking. In general, Swedish surnames were seen as more prestigious, and therefore it was common to adopt a Swedish surname as one reached a higher level in society (e.g. when getting educated). Furthermore, soldiers under Swedish rule were often given a Swedish "soldier name" (sotilasnimi, soldatnamn; a kind of nom de guerre), as was Swedish tradition, and many of these carried over into surnames. In the 19th century, the practice of adopting Swedish surnames spread more widely among the western Finnish population.

However, a major shift took place during the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the Fennicization of surnames, in which people and their families bearing Swedish surnames adopted a new Finnish surname. Not only were existing surnames adopted, but new surnames were also created. Sources for new names included terms describing natural features, place names as well as elements from national mythology and literature as part of romantic nationalism. Existing suffixes like -la and -nen were widely used in new surnames. These surnames were not adopted merely by those who had Swedish surnames, but also by those (in western Finland) that did not yet have a surname and chose not to adopt their farmstead's name as a surname.

By far the most active time period for Fennicization was the first decade of the 20th century. 1906, in particular, saw a large campaign to Fennicize surnames. The 1930s was another active decade, and 1935 saw another similar campaign. However, Fennicization was not universal. Many kept their Swedish surnames, which remain common in Finland. While the surnames are also now undoubtedly Finnish surnames, used by people in Finland and by Finns (many even by Finnish-speaking Finns, who had adopted a Swedish surname under Swedish rule as mentioned before), they are not strictly Finnish surnames in the sense that they are not surnames in the Finnish language.

It is important to note that Fennicization was not a one-to-one process. Two families with the same Swedish surname could adopt different Finnish surnames (Johansson variously became Airo, Kaila, Somerjoki and Vannas). Likewise, the same Finnish surname could have been adopted by multiple families with different Swedish surnames, like how Rautavaara was adopted by families with the surnames Sirius, Rosenqvist, Backman, Järnberg, Granlund and Mattson. A table of many Fennicized surnames and the original Swedish surnames can be found on the Finnish Wikipedia, which has also been mirrored to the English Wikipedia.

Data dvv_20230801 from 1 August 2023 by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency of Finland. The list includes Finnish nationals residing both in Finland and abroad. Surnames preceded by an asterisk (*) are Swedish.