List of Etymologies of Country Subdivision Names - Finland

Finland

• Helsinki: The Swedish name Helsingfors ( or ) represents the original official name of the city of Helsinki (in the very beginning, in the form 'Hellssingeforss'). The Finnish language form of the city's name probably originates from 'Helsinga' and similar names used for the river currently known as Vantaanjoki, as documented as early as the 14th century. Helsinki (pronounced with the stress on the first syllable: ), refers to the city in all languages except Swedish and Norwegian. Helsingfors comes from the name of the surrounding parish, Helsinge (source for Finnish Helsinki) and the rapids (in Swedish: fors), which flowed through the original village. The name Helsinge possibly originated with medieval Swedish settlers who came from Hälsingland in Sweden. Another possible derivation looks to the Swedish word hals (neck), referring to the narrowest part of the river, i.e. the rapids.
• Ostrobothnia (or in Swedish: Österbotten) - "Eastern Bothnia". Bothnia is a Latinization of Old Norse botn, meaning "bottom". The name botn was applied to the Gulf of Bothnia as Helsingjabotn in Old Norse, after Hälsingland, which at the time referred to the coastland west of the gulf. Later, botten was applied to the regions Västerbotten on the western side and Österbotten the eastern side ("East Bottom" and "West Bottom"). The Finnish name of Österbotten, Pohjanmaa, or "Pohja"-land, gives a hint as to the meaning in both languages: pohja means both "bottom" and "north."

• Åland - "Waterland", from the proposed Germanic root *ahw-, cognate with Latin aqua and meaning "water". Ahvenanmaa, its Finnish name means "Land of Perch" and is partially borrowed, partially folk-etymologized from Germanic.