New surname proposals
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 6000 Finnish names and
around 550 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.