Picture: Joh Finn/Flickr
Sofia and Onni are the most popular first names in Finland for children born in 2016. 349 girls were named as Sofia and Onni was given as a first name for 400 boys. Other popular first names for girls were Aino, Eevi, Venla and Emma. Popular names among boys were Elias, Leo, Väinö and Oliver.
Among all names received by girls the five most popular were Maria, Sofia, Emilia, Aurora and Olivia and five of the most popular names for boys were Juhani, Olavi, Johannes, Mikael and Onni.
While most of the aforementioned Finnish first names are self-explanatory, Onni, means “happiness” in English.
Among Swedish-speaking Finns, the most popular name for girls was Ellen and among boys, Adrian. 29 girls were named Ellen and 35 boys as Adrian. Other popular Finnish-Swedish first names for girls were Emma, Edith, Saga and Stella – Lucas, Emil, Willam and Hugo dominated the boys’ category.
Among all popular first names for Swedish-speaking girls were Maria, Sofia, Alice, Emilia and Elisabeth. Among boys, the five most popular names were Alexander, Johannes, Erik, Karl and Emil. The name statistics are based on 54,455 names given to children in 2016. A name was given to 26,800 girls and 27,655 boys. A total of 45,479 children spoke Finnish as their mother tongue, while 3,387 talked Swedish. In total, 55,091 children were born last year.
The Population Register Centre and the Local Register Offices maintain the statistics of Finnish names.
Want to know more? Here you can browse more Finnish names and statistics: http://verkkopalvelu.vrk.fi/Nimipalvelu/default.asp?L=3
