In Finland we celebrate our Name’s Day (nimipäivä). When a child is born, his or her name has to be informed to the authorities within 2 months of the birth. The child can have one to three names plus surname. The parents choose the names from old family names or names they like. The name has to be appropriate. A girl cannot get a boy’s name and vice versa. The written form of the name has to be according to the national language regulations. The name is not allowed to be offensive. Usually the child is given a first name, that can be found from the Finnish name day calendar.
The name day calendar is published by the University of Helsinki and it is updated every five years. A new name is added to the calendar, when at least 500 people has been given that name. Quite many people celebrate their name’s day, for example by taking some biscuits or buns to their workplace or inviting close friends or relatives to home for coffee and some sweets. Children get some small gifts from their parents, grandparents and other close relatives. There are only two days during the year, when nobody celebrates name’s day: Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
The name day calendar is originally based on the catholic saints’ calendar, where every saint had their own day. After the Catholic religion came to Finland, the Finns started to give their children names according to the saints. Before the names were more related to nature, like Morning (Aamu), Evening (Ilta), Wind (Tuuli) or Bear (Kontio), or to characters the parents wished for their child, like Shooter (Ampuja), Power (Valta) or Knowledgefull (Tietävä). The reformation came to Sweden-Finland in the 16th century, but the tradition to spend name’s day did not vanish.
Before the end of the 19th century also quite often the name of the child was decided by the priest baptizing or a first born son was given the first name of his father. At the end of the 19th century also names, that were not based on Christian names were started to be added to the calendar. During the years of Russian Empire’s oppression quite many Finns changed their Swedish or Russian names to its Finnish form. Just after the Independency in the 1920s and 1930s many people also changed their Swedish or Latin based surname into its Finnish form or took a new Finnish surname.
Nowadays in the name day calendar mostly on a day there are only manly or womanly names. In some day’s there are both names, like the 19th of January, when we celebrate the names of Heikki, Henri, Henrik, Henrikki (all man’s names and Finnish versions of Henric or Henrik) and Henna, Henni and Henriikka (woman’s names and based on the woman’s name version of Henric, so Henrietta or Henrika).
In the old traditions there is a belief, that the mid of winter is reached at the day of Saint Paul. So now the days are getting brighter and half of the snow has snowed. The old folks also believed, that on Paul’s day the bear is turning around in his nest and people had to have at least two thirds of the food left, otherwise they would be hungry before the new crop. People also expected cold for this day, because it would mean a good crop in the summer and warm summer.
The weather now at Helsinki-Vantaa airport
The calendar office of the University of Helsinki
