Finnish Surnames in America

Abstract

T HE non-conformity of their Old World patronymics with the dominant phonological patterns in America presented a perplexing problem to the Finnish immigrants.' Some of them, in their anxiety to mitigate the apparent or real peculiarity of their terminology, abandoned in toto their surnames. Others sought a compromise by preserving-through clipping, transliteration, Swedicization, and translation-as much as possible of the origin, character, or meaning of their patronymics. A third group avoided both abandonment and compromise by resisting any modification of the Finnish patronymics. Only a small minority of the Finnish immigrants have given up completely the family name; what change has occurred has been largely in the form of compromise. The most prevalent form has been the shortening of the Finnish patronymic, usually by clipping either a prefix or suffix. This process abbreviated the surname in the interests of American phonology yet retained for it an unmistakable Finnish identity. Thus, by dropping the prefix, Kaunismiiki, Kauramaiki, Koivumiki, Myllymiki, Palomiiki, Lamminmdiki, Rautamdiki, Peramdiki, Hakomdiki, Kortesmaiki, Hautamaiki, Niinimdiki, Katajamaiki, etc., became simply Maki;2 or then again, by deleting the suffix, Mdikelii, Miikinen, Miikitalo, Maikivuori, etc., were similarly transformed into Maki. The following is a partial list of clipped names; it is susceptible of considerable expansion as patronymics ending in -nen, -la, or having a root or prefix such as Koski, Niemi, Saari, etc., are abundant.