Suffix _nen in Finnish surnames!

[EP]

Tribes existed, but not really any more. There were four major tribes: karjalaiset, pohjalaiset, hämäläiset and savolaiset (first ones in eastern Finland, second on the western coast, Tavastians (hämäläiset) in western center, and savolaiset in eastern center. And they used to fight each other and trade with each other. Now it is all mixed.

Nen ending surnames originate from eastern Finland, in western Finland the ending used to be la or lä.

And no, you could not name a kid Korhonen, no priest or official would accept that.

[tuulen]

It seems that the _nen suffix is quite old, and it appears to indicate that a person belongs to a family which historically came from a certain area. For instance, if a family is originally from an area located by the bay of a lake then that family might have the name of Lahtinen.

[tuulen]

...who're säämi people?

Do you mean Saami?

[EP]

Well, Sami are Sami. They are not a tribe.

Wikipedia can tell you more, so can numerous other sources. Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people

[tuulen]

The Finns and the Saami are two different peoples, but their languages are related, as not the same but similar.

And, the history of those language similarities goes back a few thousand years, or more.

[Mook]

I thought that -nen was the diminutive..

[EP]

I thought that -nen was the diminutive..

It is also that. But for example Korhonen – a diminutive of what? Lampinen could be a little pond, Mäntynen a little pine, Mäkinen a little hill, Koskinen a little rapid... Hiltunen, Parkkinen, Pääkkönen and numerous others are like Korhonen – what would be little?

[Mook]

I thought that -nen was the diminutive..

It is also that. But for example Korhonen – a diminutive of what? Lampinen could be a little pond, Mäntynen a little pine, Mäkinen a little hill, Koskinen a little rapid... Hiltunen, Parkkinen, Pääkkönen and numerous others are like Korhonen – what would be little?

The first google hit for Korho gives us this:
http://www.genealogia.fi/nimet/nimi36aas.htm

[Jukka Aho]

I like to know the nature of suffix nen in most Finnish surnames. Does this suffix special for some tribes(if tribes exist in Finland) or applied to all Finns? Why it exists only in surnames? Is it impossible to name your son Korhonen,Litmanen or other _nen name?

According to the explanation given on this page, the suffix -nen is actually short for -inen; some old surnames retain the i while others have dropped it or never used it in the first place.

Iso suomen kielioppi explains the meaning and the various usages of the suffix -(i)nen in articles § 261, § 262, § 263 and onwards, all the way to the article § 281.

At the most basic level, -inen turns nouns into adjectives. For example, take the noun kala, “fish”. Kalainen means “fish-containing”, or “something consisting or made of fish”. The noun tuska, “pain, agony”, would turn into tuskainen, “agonized, pained”. Puna, “red” as a noun (for example, puna hänen poskillaan, “the red[ness] on her cheeks”) → punainen, “red” as an adjective.

The suffix -nen, without the -i, is used for deriving diminutives. For example tyttö, “girl” -> tyttönen, “little girl, girlie”.

Despite the appearance, the -nen last names are not necessarily diminutives – at least not all of them. Many sources claim the ending used in surnames was originally -inen, with the -i- often having been dropped later. Differentiation between -nen and -(i)nen is not that clear-cut even now. In colloquial speech, you often hear punainen pronounced as punanen, vihainen pronounced as vihanen, nuhainen as nuhanen etc...

According to various sources, the -nen names came into being in two waves. The oldest -nen names appeared in eastern Finland and were probably originally of the adjectival type, possibly describing the personal characteristics of their first bearer, being derived from nicknames and some such – even though many of the root words (such as korho in Korhonen) have now fallen into disuse, or were dialectal and “local” to begin with and are often no longer recognized as containing any specific meaning by most speakers of modern Finnish. During this time, people in western Finland favored names ending with -la, instead. These were often derived from a nearby geographical feature, or referring to something out of the nature: harju (“ridge”) → Harjula, virta (“stream”) → Virtala, paju (“willow”) → Pajula. (The “meaning” of X-la could be said to be simply “a place of X”.) The primary difference between the western and the eastern names of this era is that in western Finland, the name usually referred to the house (Pajula would obviously be a house built somewhere near willow trees/bushes, Virtala would be a house located close a stream and so on). Also, the name belonged to the house: your personal “last name” changed according to the house/farm where you lived, for both men and women. In eastern Finland, the last names were more personal, not attached to houses.

The second wave of -nen names came later when people in western Finland had got a hang of this eastern -nen style of naming and adopted it themselves. This is apparently when many of the new -nen names began to be formed the same way as the -la names: deriving them from features of nature instead of something that might refer to personal characteristics: virta → Virtanen, paju → Pajunen etc.

In both camps, sometimes even patronyms such as Heikinpoika (“son of Heikki”) were just converted into the -nen or -la format, or these kind of names might also have been derived from the Finnicized names of the catholic saints. Hence, last name which look like first names: Pekka (Peter) → Pekkala or Pekkanen, Heikki (Henrik/Heinrich) → Heikkilä or Heikkinen etc.

• • •

Finns today tend not to actively “interpret” the endings of the last names in any particular way. Most of the time names are just names and you don’t give a second thought about what they might “mean” – supposing the original meaning is even decipherable any longer. There are obvious exceptions to that, of course, for example if the name conjures up funny or awkward associations. (For example, there are people with the last name Nännimäinen [nänni = “nipple”, nännimäinen = “nipple-alike”] and Saastamoinen [saasta = “filth” and Akkala (akka = “(old) hag”, akkala = “place of (old) hags”], and a handful of others. But in the end, even these names are usually seen just as names... or at least giggling about their literal meaning would be seen as immature... ;)

There are also many Finnish surnames which have no ending at all. (Often some unrelated family carries a variant of the “same” name with -nen or -la, though.)

Typical sources of inspiration for all kinds of Finnish surnames, with or without a specific ending, have included 1) names of houses (farms) – often having something to do with some of the most prominent natural features characterizing that place, 2) names of villages, 3) patronyms, 4) nicknames, and 5) names of professions.

• • •

A little more reading on the subject (in Finnish):

• Savolaisten sukunimien alkuperä
• Sukunimet sukututkimuksessa
• Suomalaisen sukunimen historiaa
• Mistä juontuvat useiden suomalaisten sukunimien -nen -päätteet (esim. Virtanen)?
• Suku ja nimi
• Virtanen ja Lötjönen
• Sukunimet Suomessa
• Suomalaisten -nen sukunimien etymologia ja historia?
• Sukunimiemme historiaa
• Sukunimen historiaa

[Pursuivant]

According to the explanation given on this page, the suffix -nen is actually short for -inen; some old surnames retain the i while others have dropped it or never used it in the first place.

I'd refer to this; it seems it was a patronymical originally?
http://www.genealogia.fi/nimet/nimi36rs.htm
Esim. Vesulahdella on Henrik Albrektinpoika merkitty seuraavasti: 1541 Hen albretzsson, 1550 Hen albrictin, 1551 Hen albrictinen, 1552 Hen albrectinca (=Albrektinpoika), 1553 hen albrectinen, 1556 Henrich albricth.

There are obvious exceptions to that, of course, for example if the name conjures up funny or awkward associations.

Partanen = bearded (as a female surname..)
Sikiö = fetus/offspring (don't you have any newborn there to answer the phone?)

[tuulen]

I thought that -nen was the diminutive..

Yes, apparently -nen can indicate a diminutive. Yet, consider the word hevonen. Now, if a horse could be a diminutive of hevo, then just how big could a hevo be???

[Upphew]

I thought that -nen was the diminutive..

Yes, apparently -nen can indicate a diminutive. Yet, consider the word hevonen. Now, if a horse could be a diminutive of hevo, then just how big could a hevo be???

Hepo vs. heponen
Are they smaller..?

[Zlata]

Hello! I need your help I know about -nen in a surnames but you know I can't find the translation of the biginnig of the surname. I'm interested in PULKKANEN. If I not mistaken PULKKA is smth like a sledge but I don't think that this word is so old. So could you translate this surname in English?:) Please

[Mook]

I thought that -nen was the diminutive..

Yes, apparently -nen can indicate a diminutive. Yet, consider the word hevonen. Now, if a horse could be a diminutive of hevo, then just how big could a hevo be???

Hepo vs. heponen
Are they smaller..?

Nainen..?

[EP]

If I not mistaken PULKKA is smth like a sledge but I don't think that this word is so old.

Here you can see pulkka:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=48374

And if Pulkkanen needs to be translated it would be Little Pulkka. But it is really just a name, not even nearly all names mean something.