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Väinämö is just a short form of Väinämöinen. It isn't used very often, especially as a first name; Väinö, on the other hand, has been one of the most popular baby names in Finland in recent years.

You're right about Aaro's pronunciation, though I would point out that the double A makes the "AH" sound longer (if that makes any sense). Aaro has been quite a popular name in recent years: it charted #19-#39 in the top 50 first names' list in 2007-2011 and peaked on the #49 spot in 2014. In a couple of past years Aaron has been slightly more popular, but I think Niinistö's baby may increase Aaro's popularity again.

This message was edited 4/8/2018, 10:41 PM

I agree with you about Emil: it's a really nice name, but so overused currently!

Alpo is a Finnish variant of Albin and/or Albert. I've never heard of that dog food brand!

Alvar is originally a Swedish name and thus it became first popular among the Swedish-speaking Finns. Alvar is one of those "vintage trendy" names: it was popular from the 1900's to the 1930's and has its revival now in the 2010's, appearing on the last year's top 50 first names' list. The most famous bearer is architect and designer Alvar Aalto (1898-1976): almost every Finn owns a piece of furniture, textiles or glassware designed by him, which has probably influenced on Alvar's popularity.

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Hilla is a fairly modern name as it became more common in the 1980's/1990's. Like I mentioned in the original post, Hilla means "cloudberry" in Finnish, but Hilla has also been used as a nickname for "Hil-" starting names such as Hilda, Hilja and Hilkka. I don't know any famous Hillas, but I've had a couple of classmates bearing this name.

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As it's told in the BtN's database, Terhi originates from the Finnish mythology: Terhenetär was a sprite associated with mist, and the (archaic) word "terhen" means "mist". Neither Terhenetär or Terhen are used on ordinary people (as they're too mythological), but Terhi is quite a common name. Most Terhis were born in the 1960's-1990's, so it's a bit dated. There are many famous Terhis in Finland, but none of them is really known abroad. There has currently been buzz about singer Terhi Kokkonen, who was supposed to take part in a popular TV show "Vain Elämää", but she left the show when they were still recording it.

This message was edited 4/8/2018, 3:56 AM