Why Is Suomi Called Finland In English?

This video was so heavily requested I couldn't not make it. Annoyingly there just isn't a definitive answer for this question. It was a really double ended sword making this as so many people wanted it but I just don't think there's enough content for it. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed!

SOURCES & FURTHER READING

"Village Consort"
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[benjamincederberg]

in Swedish "fin" means Beautiful (ish) so ill just go with "beautiful land" ;)

[der_Alptraum]

Next episode: Why Turkey is called Turkey and what does that do with the animal?

[JasmineJu]

I call it Funland. The homeland of Spurdo Spärde

[Liwii]

OON ODOTTANUT KOLME TUNTIA TORILLA MUTTA KETÄÄN EI NÄY VAIKKA KOMMENTTEJA NÄKYY nyt kun kirjoitan tätä niin ajattelin onkohan tämä oikea tori

[MikaelLevoniemi]

And Germany is Saksa in finnish. For the Saxony part probably? That might go back a millennia or more.

[MrTokesu]

Suomi in finland is ofthen said to come from the Finnish word for swamp suo :P nice video!

[DerClouder]

The name Suomi has a word "suo" meaning "swamp" in it. And i think the original word for swamp was "suomi" but it got shortened to "suo" over time.

Also in finnish folklore, swamps were holy places(but then again so were forests, lakes, hills, sky and all of nature itself).

[saddamhussein]

I always thought that Suomi was just some word that Finns scream out randomly.

[sarahgray]

The name "Finland" comes from "Fennae", a name given by Tacitus to a people who lived far to the north of the Germanic tribes that he described in his work "Germania", and whom he described as being "exceedingly fierce" and praised for their skill at archery, and he said that their arrows were tipped with bone rather than iron. The Vikings also mentioned the Finns in their sagas, and generally characterized them as ferocious and cunning and skilled at sorcery. Traditionally, the Suomi and Saami are two separate but related people....the Suomi are farmers, fishermen and craftsmen whereas the Saami generally inhabit the most northerly part of Finland (and neighboring countries) and are pastoral nomads.

[Horzuhammer]

The "fen" -> marsh/swamp one would make a lot of sense to me since "suo" means the same in Finnish language, and "mi" is really close to the word "maa" meaning land. I'm just guessing here but it would kinda make sense.

[Fortzon]

Another theory for the name "Suomi" is that it comes from the words Suo (Swamp) and maa (land). Suomi, Suomaa. So maybe Finland and Suomi aren't such different names after all :D

[mr.hoovy]

i tough that most americans doesent know finland, because we are (small) country and not that special. and im really shocked that someone other than swedish or finnish made video about us.

[wheresmypretzel]

As a Finnish person, this was actually pretty educational!

[NameExplain]

Random question of the video: Who's going to win the Royal Rumble? I'm think either Undertaker, Braun Stroman, or a returning Finn Balor.

[mcgoldenblade]

"Finrando" sounds funny to me. It sounds like a Japanese person trying to say "Finland".

[ElizaMogha]

You could also do why Greece is widely called as such, but in Greek we call it "Hellas" and that's what it says on our passports. Then, in Arabic and other Eastern languages, it's called "Younan" and that derives from a particular group of ancient Greeks who were residing in Ionia (now part of modern Turkey) and were greatly influential in antiquity.

[Mendel]

I would go with that "Fen"land theory. I had no idea fen means a swamp. Not sure if you knew this but "Suo" also means a swamp in Finnish. And there are a LOT of swamps here. edit: ah going through the comments it seems I was slow and it has been mentioned already.

[Talon]

as a finnish person, i can tell you that suo is a swamp, and we have alot of them, so the land is named suo-mi. tahats what they teach in gradeschools anyway.

[Bhaalspawn]

Heh i wondered the same thing. I've come to accept my country as Swampland. Suo = Swamp Fin (swedish) = Swamp Fen (english) = Swamp, so Finland's english name should be Fenland. Suoni = "My swamp" or "Vein". Suomi = ? probably some old form of the word swamp.

[Sharnoy]

I know people already brought this up in their comments, but here it is once more:
Suo means swamp and Maa means land in finnish, so Suomaa (Suomi) = Swampland.
The originally Swedish version Finnland is actually nicer, because Fin means fine or good or elegant in swedish and Land is... land. So Finland = Fineland :)
During the Swedish reign they indeed called the area in south-western Finland the Finland province (as shown in the video) and the wider area roughly today known as Finland was known as Österland = Eastern land, as Finland is located east of Sweden.

And yes...
Suomi perkele.