What's the deal with nimipäivä?

mrjimsfc · Post by **mrjimsfc** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:35 pm

In iltalehti I always see a "nimipäivä" for the date at the top of the page. I have rarely heard ANY of those names while in Finland. Frankly, some of those names just seem weird! (OK, today we're going to celebrate the "name day" of anyone named Talvikki

) I guess there are not a lot of celebrations going on today.

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Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:40 pm

Well 4692 women and 5 males... 44 girls born last year.

mrjimsfc · Post by **mrjimsfc** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:45 pm

I guess that's 4692 women, 5 men and 44 babies I've never met.

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 4:58 pm

The deal is this... many people send postcards (or perhaps nowadays e-cards) to their friends who happen to have their "name day" - and seeing that on the newspaper can act as a last-minute reminder ("you still have time to call at least")

IIRC the "name day" tradition derives from the Catholic/Orthodox Saints' Days (?)

edit: see this...

It's not a big thing if you happen to miss your friends' name day... I hope! Since I almost invariably do!

Believe it or not, there's also one for dogs.

Mattlill2000 · Post by **Mattlill2000** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:21 pm

My cousin had a nimipäivä list from the '20s and most of names were Swedish ones. I big change from nowadays.

sammy · Post by **sammy** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:40 pm

Mattlill2000 wrote:My cousin had a nimipäivä list from the '20s and most of names were Swedish ones. I big change from nowadays.

A propos, In the early years of the 20th century, on the centennary year of Snellman in particular, there was a big "wave" of changing formerly Swedish-originated family names into a Finnish-language form. IIRC tens of thousands of people "Finnish-ed" their family name back then. It had much to do with the much sought after independence and national identity. But this I think was mostly family names... however, it's likely that first names were also affected, could have something to do with what you wrote.

Incidentally, one of the primus motors for this Great Surname Shift was a student organisation called "Suomalainen Nuija".

Not a "club" that I'd rush to join

Jukka Aho · Post by **Jukka Aho** » Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:11 pm

Finnish calendars and almanacs typically list name days, too. Here’s the “official” calendar with name days for this year, as published by the University of Helsinki Almanac Office (Almanakkatoimisto):

Kalenteri vuodelle 2009 – Kalender för år 2009

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