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Re: Choose a Finnish middle name
in reply to a message by Malk
Niemi sounds too much like part of a surname. I've met quiet a few Finns with this in their surname, so it might be pretty, but I'd never consider it a given name. Lumi is uncommon (and considered odd, if I understand correctly), and I've never heard of Inari used as a name, ever. It's a shame, because I've heard so many in-use Finnish names which are beautiful, and these aren't -really- Finnish names, but more Finnish -words-, hm? Still, slightly odd as these names seem to me (with my student's Finnish and less than a year in the country, lack of Finnish blood and all that), I'd say Lumi. It's the only one which I've ever heard of being used as a name. Admittedly, it was a friend of a friend's possibly fictional cousin, and another friend's dog who were bearers of this name, but it's the nicest meaning and the most realistic.Then again, you could be the most knowledgable person on this subject, which I really am NOT. This is just my shallow opinion on the matter :P
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Yeah, I don't think I have ever seen Niemi as a given name. I've only ever seen it as a surname. It's on this list too on this Finnish name site:
http://www.sci.fi/~kajun/finns/alllast.htm
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You obviously have more knowledge than I. I've only been in the country for 4 months, have very little Finnish and no Finnish blood.I have met one Lumi (around 2) and one Inari (around 10) but I haven't met many people. Niemi is more of a place/surname and as it's an honouring name for her Finnish birth I'm not terribly worried how often it's used as a name as we won't use it unless we stay for a long time and she finds Calla is too hard for the locals to understand. But no one's had a problem yet as there have Calla lilies here as well. So it's more of a matter of how much we like the name and how it fits with the rest of her name. Thanks for the comments.
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