Welcome to view this catalogue of suggestions for a new surname! The Institute for the Languages of Finland has compiled this list as a source of help and inspiration if you are thinking about adopting a new surname.
The catalogue lists around 5 800 Finnish names and around 500 Swedish names for consideration if you wish to register a new surname. These are names which have no registered bearers. The Act on Forenames and Surnames, which came into force in 2019, defines such names as newly coined surnames.
Surnames in Finland are protected in the current Act on Forenames and Surnames so that one cannot adopt a surname already in use. While it is possible to coin ever more surnames, it is not always easy to arrive at a name which is suitable as a surname both linguistically and substantively.
The catalogue New surname proposals is a list of suitable new surnames in Finland. These names can also provide inspiration to those who wish to coin names of their own.
How to search
The names are listed alphabetically, and you can search the catalogue by various components of a name. For example, you can enter ‘puro’ (Finnish puro, ‘stream’) or ‘berg’ (Swedish berg, ‘cliff, hill’) in the search box of your browser to find any names that begin or end with these components.
You can also freely choose between the Finnish and the Swedish name proposals, even if they are listed separately for the sake of clarity.
Once a name listed in the catalogue has been registered as being in use, it is no longer possible for others to adopt this name unless for a special reason laid out in the legislation. The lists are updated couple of times a year. This is why it is advisable to check in the Name Service of the Population Register Centre that a proposed listed name on the list has not been adopted since the last update.
The catalogue lists name proposals which from a linguistic point of view are suitable as surnames. Because a newly coined surname is not to be mistaken for a company name, a trademark or any other name used in business operations, it is not guaranteed that all names in this catalogue are approved in an application for a newly coined surname.
Make sure the name is not yet in use
Finnish Name Statistics (Digital and Population Data Services Agency)
Name change instructions
Changing surname (The Digital and Population Data Services Agency)
What does the law say about the change of surname?
To Act on Forenames and Surnames (pdf)
How has the catalogue been compiled
The catalogue is based on place names extracted from the Place Names Register of the National Land Survey of Finland, which holds around 800,000 names. The Place Names Register is an apt starting point for proposals of new surnames, as a large proportion of the surnames in Finland are drawn from farm names or other place names.
The extracted place names have been checked against the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre. Any names already used as surnames have been eliminated and the most uncommon names have been removed, as have names which for various reasons are not considered suitable as surnames.
The catalogue also contains names which have previously been used as surnames but which currently have no bearers.
Author information
Editor-in-chief: Petra Saarnisto (Sirkka Paikkala 2018–2019)
Editors: Tiina Manni-Lindqvist, Ulla Onkamo, Petra Saarnisto, Helinä Uusitalo, Maria Vidberg and Elina Wihuri, and also Teijo Kemppainen, Kallas Lukka and Susanna Nygård
Data runs: Toni Suutari, Risto Widenius and Jari Vihtari
IT expertise: Outi Lehtinen
Web publications of the Institute for the Languages of Finland 59. Helsinki 2018. Material is to be continuously updated.
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