Sunday, July 27, 2008

Lake names in Finland

It has been estimated that there are 188000 lakes in Finland (area more than 500 square meters). Naming such a collection of lakes is challenging. Even in Espoo there are several lakes with the same name, for example Pitkäjärvi (Long Lake) and Myllyjärvi (Mill Lake). I posted earlier some photos which were taken at Pitkäjärvi at Velskola, Espoo, and one photo from a Myllyjärvi in Espoo.

The most common lake name in Finland is Pyhäjärvi (Holy Lake). I remember reading that this is due to censorship, that is the priests and officials censored pagan and vulgar names and used Pyhäjärvi instead. It is interesting to speculate what the original names have been - referring to pagan deities or to certain parts of human anatomy. On the other hand, Pyhäjärvi is not a bad name either.

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