Kuopio - Name

Name

There are several explanations behind the name Kuopio. The first is that in the 16th century, a certain influential person named Kauhanen in Tavinsalmi changed his name to Skopa and the people's pronunciation was Coopia and finally Cuopio. The second explanation is that it comes from the verb kuopia, meaning when, for example, a horse paws the ground with its hoof. A third theory is that it came from a certain Karelian man's name Prokopij, from Ruokolahti in the Middle Ages. This is the most probable explanation, supported by the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland.