Finnish Baby Names

Long ruled by foreign powers, including Sweden and the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire, Finland finally declared independence in 1917. During World War II, Finland fought the USSR twice and then the Germans toward the end of the war. In the following half-century, the Finns made a remarkable transformation from a farm/forest economy to a diversified modern industrial economy. Finnish, like Estonian and Hungarian, is an Asiatic-derived language completely unrelated to the other Scandinavian tongues. Many names in Finland are borrowed from Scandinavian, Germanic, and even English sources, such as Johan, Ole, Claes, and Eugen; others are uniquely Finnish in nature, such as with Paavo, Pekka, Esko, or Risto. Famous Finns include the design innovators Alvar Aalto and Eero Saarinen, the film director Renny Harlin, and the composer Jean Sibelius.