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ArchivesRe: Where does the surname Karkkainen come from?
in reply to a message by StephanieTheLioness
The great Lord Google replied that the Finnish diminutive -nen has been used to form surnames from nicknames for about half a millenium, and kärkäs means eager. The odd phonetic shape of kärkäs may be because it is borrowed back from a Saami derivative of a Finnish loan of original Finnish kere/tä into Saami.
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