Finnish baby names--please vote!

Nukke · December 2012

https://www.babynames.com/namelist/9811594

This is the second time I've posted our name list in a year. We've made some adjustments, and I'd love your opinions! I've written them in alphabetical order, not in the order of our favourites.

I know some will find the pronunciation tricky. I grew up in a Finnish family, and we'd prefer to name our children using finnish names that mean something to us.

You probably don't care, but here's a pronunciation guide anyway.

Every letter is pronounced in Finnish (there are no silent characters).

Vowels:

A - sounds like "aa" like in octopus

E - sounds like "e" like in elephant

I - sounds like "ee" like in evil

O - sounds like "o" like in oval

U - sounds like "oo" like in who

Double vowels just mean you hold the sound a little longer. It doesn't change the original vowel sound like in English.

And some important consonants:

J - sounds like "y" like yellow

KK - you don't pronounce each K. it has a glotal stop in the middle (like when we say black-cat)

My name is Eeva (pronounced with "e" like egg held a little longer). Nice to meet you

strawberrytree · December 2012

I love Finnish names. Aili, Leena, and Lilja are my favourite girl names. I love Oona too, but it's also pronounced differently as an Irish name so that one might cause some difficulties.

On your boy list I like Akseli, Valio, and Toivo the best. Oiva has a cool sound and look to it but I can see most Americans thinking it's a girl name or someone getting creative with Ava/Eva.

ZoeMay06 · December 2012

I got positively giddy when I read your post, I just love Finnish names and I hardly ever see them mentioned. And I got excited again when you mentioned glottal stops - my BA is in linguistics so I knew just what you meant by that (my Christmas wish is that we could all learn IPA, it would make writing out name pronunciations SO much easier on here).

The only one I gave the thumbs down to was Aukusti. I'm sure it's a lovely name in Finland but here I'd worry that it's a bit too close to the word "crusty" and besides that I just don't like it as much as the others. I think the rest could make the jump just fine over here, just know that you'll probably have to explain the pronunciations to people. That might be a deal breaker to some people but not to me.

Nukke · December 2012

Thanks for your input! Valio is actually our favourite name for a boy, but we're not using it. Oiva was my vaari's (grandfather's) name. Name was actually Oiva Valio. The reason we can't use Valio (as awesome as it is), is that there's a dairy/cheese company in Finland now called Valio that started in teh 1960s or so. Now it's really weird to call your kid Valio. it's like calling a kid in America Oscar Meyer.

Nukke · December 2012

ZoeMay06:
I got positively giddy when I read your post, I just love Finnish names and I hardly ever see them mentioned. And I got excited again when you mentioned glottal stops - my BA is in linguistics so I knew just what you meant by that (my Christmas wish is that we could all learn IPA, it would make writing out name pronunciations SO much easier on here).
The only one I gave the thumbs down to was Aukusti. I'm sure it's a lovely name in Finland but here I'd worry that it's a bit too close to the word "crusty" and besides that I just don't like it as much as the others. I think the rest could make the jump just fine over here, just know that you'll probably have to explain the pronunciations to people. That might be a deal breaker to some people but not to me.

I agree about the IPA!! And I appreciate your input on Aukusti ['?ukusti]. I never thought of it like "crusty". Sometimes people call boys named Aukusti "Kusti" for short, though. My husband thinks Aukusti is OK, but he's not crazy about it.

OSibyl · December 2012

I voted. A few I voted no on but if someone correctly pronounced them for me there is a chance I would like them better. I do love the idea of names that pay homage to heritage. We have played around with a few German names because DH is German. Our last names is VERY German already...