<Ollila, is of course an ancient Swedish family name, as
Tero and I well know...>
Dear Lars, I think you may be wrong this point. Both Jorma and Ollila are entirely and very Finnish names. May be an originally Swedish family, who adopted it or “translated” their family name into a Finnish version, but that is a little bit something else. If the latter, what then was the Swedish original family name?
There was a period in Finnish history, when even some Swedish people in Finland (members of the Swedish minority of Finland), “translated” their names into Finnish versions, in the ambition to adopt a new Finnish identity influenced by a pro-Finnish and nationalistic political view. This happened in the then young nation, which had become independent that after being first a part of Sweden, and later a part of Russia. (Sweden at a time of history included Finland, which then was lost to Russia in a war. Finland’s independency from Russia was later achieved through a long and cruel war).
The translation of Swedish family names into Finnish was also connected to movements of nationalism and anti-Swedish ideas flourishing at a certain periods of Finnish history. Example from people I know: the Swedish name Wahlroos was translated into the Finnish-sounding Valpola, which thus became the name of the succeeding family arm.
Joar |
