Finnicize
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Finnicization is the changing of one's personal names from other languages (usually Swedish) into Finnish. During the era of National Romanticism in Finland, many people, especially Fennomans, finnicized their previously Swedish names.
Many of these people actually came from families that had originated from Finnish speaking farmers, who had previously changed their Finnish names into Swedish ones after climbing society's ladder. This was an understandable stratagem under circumstances where official positions (and even many trades) were only open to Swedish-speaking people, and a Finnish name would have been more than a mere mark against one.
Notable finnicized names
- Johannes Brofeldt changed his name to Juhani Aho
- Tauno Brännäre changed his name to Tauno Palo
- Georg Zacharias Forsman changed his name to Yrjö Sakari Yrjö-Koskinen
- Axél Waldemar Gallén changed his name to Akseli Gallen-Kallela
- Armas Einar Leopold Lönnbohm changed his name to Eino Leino
- Johan Gustaf Hellstén changed his name to Juho Kusti Paasikivi
- Alexis Stenvall used the pen name Aleksis Kivi