Karjalainen — Karilainen: Name and Family Through Five Centuries

Karjalainen – Karilainen: Nimi ja suku historian pyörteissä (Name and Family in the Storms of History) traces a Karelian family across five centuries and through some of the most turbulent episodes in Finnish history.

The book examines the family that bore, or was associated with, the surname Karilainen — a name closely related to the tribal designation Karjalainen — across roughly 500 years of records. Along the way it offers a new perspective on the origin of the word Karjala itself.

The conventional explanation of the name Karjala (Karelia) has been that it derives from the word karja (cattle, herd). Kankaanpää’s research suggests a different reading: Karjala as a directional term meaning “behind” or “above” a major waterway — specifically the route from the Gulf of Finland via the Neva into Lake Ladoga. The name would then have been given by peoples to the south of that route, for whom the Karelian lands lay beyond and above the main waterway.

Support for this reading comes from parallel place names. The parish of Karjala lies above (north of) Mynämäki. Karjaa (Karis in Swedish) lies “behind” Finland as seen from Estonia. Karjalohja (Karislojo) is similarly positioned. The naming logic is geographical and directional, not pastoral.

The family history woven around this linguistic argument is detailed and documented, drawing on parish records, tax rolls and other archival sources from both the Swedish and Russian periods of Finnish history.