Who Was That Soini? The Origin of the Name of Soini Parish

Published in Genos 2/2002, pp. 61–74.

Soini is a small municipality of fewer than 3,000 inhabitants. It sits at the watershed of Suomenselkä, at the point where three river systems begin. The Ähtävänjoki (locally called the Kuninkaanjoki) rises here, as does the drainage to Ähtärijärvi and the Kokemäenjoki basin to the south, and in the east the waters flow through multiple lakes along the Saarijärvi route. The municipality was established in 1868 by merging parts of Alajärvi and Ähtäri.

My interest in families bearing the Soini name arises from my own ancestry, which includes people who lived in the 18th century at the Ylä-Soini (Upper Soini) farm in the Toisvesi village of Virrat. Ylä-Soini was one part of the original Soini farmstead, which was divided at the end of the 18th century among three brothers into Ala-, Keski- and Ylä-Soini. I have been able to trace the Soini family name back to the Ähtäri side, where it appears as early as the early 17th century. I observed that the name must be connected to the place-name tradition from which today’s Soini parish takes its name. The northernmost parts of the old Ähtäri village now belong to Soini parish. Parish histories normally explain the origin of their names — but searching the history of the Järviseutu region, I could not find such an explanation. I believe I have found the answer: the name derives from Suni (Sven) Leppäinen, a Savonian settler who founded a new farm in Ähtäri village in 1567. He became the progenitor of a strong family. Several of his descendants used the nickname Soini, which in time became the name of the village community and eventually the parish.

The Soini of Toisvesi, Virrat

The Soini of Toisvesi village — nowadays also called Soininkylä — lies along the road from Virrat to Ähtäri via Killinkoski, near the Killinkoski industrial area. Historically the village of Toisvesi (originally Toevesi) comprised four parts: Toevesi (Ikkalat), Lahti and Hirvelä, which was old hunting ground of Kuurinen of Tammerkoski; Metserintaival (Pylkäs), formerly the hunting base of Vaihmala, Lempäälä (1589); Liesikoski (Kahila and Soini), old hunting ground of Ahtiala, Lempäälä (1589); and Ohtola, probably the hunting base of Ohtola, Kangasala (1552).

The oldest place name in what is now Soininkylä is probably Liesikoski. The name in any case must be very old, originating in the hunting-ground era. It belongs to the Liesi place-name group (related to the word for a hearth or cooking fire), of which Liesjärvi village and lake in Keuruu are other examples. Liesikoski means a rapid on whose bank there was a cooking place. One might wonder whether the hearth in question belonged to a Sámi encampment or was built by hunters from Satakunta.

Two permanent farms were established in the village area in 1565–66. The founders were evidently brothers: Olavi Matinpoika Kahila, mentioned as a farmer at Liesikoski 1566–1592, and Paavali Matinpoika Kahila (also Kahilainen, also Liesainen), mentioned 1565–1607. From Olavi’s farm came the Kahila farm; from Paavali’s, the Soini farm. Both farms lay close together on the same hill where the Soininkylä centre with its shops stands today. It is not certain that the later Kahila and Soini families descend from these brothers.

The Soini family came to the second of these farms in 1633. The name Soini can be treated as a hereditary nickname from the outset. After Paavali Matinpoika the farm was held by his son Esko Paavalinpoika 1606–09, his brother Yrjö Paavalinpoika 1610–24, and a third brother Pekka Paavalinpoika 1625–33. In 1633 Klemetti Heikinpoika Soini arrived from Kukkomäki. The evidence presented below shows that he had been a farmer at Kukkomäki 1620–30 and that his descendants there founded the Kukkola family. Kukkomäki (Kukkola) takes its name from the surname of Klemetti’s predecessors — Juho (Juska) Kukkonen c.1556–c.1598 and Juho Kukkonen 1600–19 — whose name suggests Savonian origin. There is no basis for assuming any family connection between Klemetti and these Kukkonens. Kukkonen was a common surname in Savo already in the oldest land books of 1540.

Can All Soini Families Share a Common Origin?

Soini is a typically West Finnish name. According to Seppo Suvanto, the oldest occurrences in Satakunta are from Kokemäki, Eurajoki, Tyrvää, Kangasala and Karkku. The history of Hämeenkyrö parish emphasises the Soini of Jämijärvi and implies it might be the origin of the Soini farms in South Ostrobothnia. In South Ostrobothnia the Soini name occurs at least in Vähäkyrö, Nurmo, Kauhava and of course Soini itself. Curiously, neither source mentions the Soini of Kilvakkala in Ikaalinen, from which the Jämijärvi Soini may have been founded — the settlement of Jämijärvi being in general younger than that of the Ikaalinen core areas.

Scholars have been fairly unanimous that Soini derives from the Swedish masculine name Sven or Sune. The Finnish name form arising from these same names is also Vänni (Venni), which occurs alongside Soini at Kilvakkala, Ikaalinen.

Suvanto’s examples are sufficient to show that not all Soini families are one and the same. At Soinila in Kokemäki there was a juryman in 1450 and 1469 named Jöns Svenssonson, meaning the Soini name there derives from his patronymic. At Liinamaa in Eurajoki, the earliest land books list Niilo Kunnila — who, according to Suvanto, was the same person referred to in some sources as Niilo Sveninpoika, Niilo Soini and Niilo Soinila. The Soini name thus derives from Niilo’s patronymic, and the Kunnila name from an even earlier master named Gunnar. In Tyrvää, Heikki Soininpoika is mentioned already in 1475, and there are several later generations of the name. In Kangasala (now Kuhmalahti) at Isopento Knaappi there was Antti Soini in 1510 and Olavi Soini in 1546. In Karkku at Mierola, Klemetti Olavinpoika (also Soini) is mentioned 1564–71.

Thus there were at least four distinct Soini families in Satakunta at the beginning of the modern era.

Suni and Soini in Ähtäri Village

From this it follows that the Klemetti Heikinpoika who came to Toisvesi brought his nickname Soini with him — but from where? Before searching for an answer, let us note that in Ähtäri village there was also a farm called Suni, into whose predecessor’s abandoned building Erkki Antinpoika Soini settled in 1635. The form Suni appears in the sources only later.

The history of Järviseutu region gives us the following for Soini’s settlement history: “South of the watershed, Kukko or Kukonmäki rose next to Källi, east of the Leväjärvi ridge … The original location of the Soini farm placed by Ilma Orkamo is not entirely certain. According to folk tradition, the later Suni farm would have been the ancestral Soini farm founded in the 1560s, which belonged in the 16th century to what is now Lehtimäki.”

It is striking that the parish history does not tell when the Soini name first appears in Soini municipality, nor where it came from. The conclusion must be that the name was not very significant there in early times, and we must look elsewhere for the origin of the Kukkomäki Soinis.

The question is: how many farms in Ruovesi’s Ähtäri village were continuously inhabited without abandonment from their founding in the 16th century through to the far side of the Great Wrath in the 18th century? The answer is just one: Suni (Soini). In second place would come Ollikkala, but that was not founded until around 1603. The Suni–Soini farm, now division no. 7 in the Lipo village area, seems sufficiently strong in its family trunk to have been one of the founding families of the community.

Since the land registers show that the first resident of the Suni farm was Suni (Sven) Leppäinen, alias Lapveteläinen, let us examine whether the Ähtäri Soinis could descend from this Suni.

The registers show: Suni Leppäinen alias Lapveteläinen as farmer 1567–1606; Klemetti Suninpoika 1607–43; and Klemetti’s son-in-law Yrjö Mikonpoika 1644–83. Three successive farmers each with unusually long tenures suggest that a generation (Suni Suninpoika) may be missing between Suni and Klemetti.

Searching the poll tax rolls for evidence of two successive men named Suni: this is hard to establish with certainty. In the land books the series of Svens can be assembled from various points: Sim. Leppäinen 1 öre 1567, Suenn Leppäinen 1568, Suen Leppäinen 1569–71, Sven Lapvetinen 1572–74, and so on through to Sven Leppäinen 1602–06. The name Suni is not known to have appeared elsewhere in old Ruovesi at this time. The first name is known in Savo, where at Juva in the early 1560s there was a Suni Antinpoika.

There were two men named Klemetti: one was Suninpoika and the other bore the nickname Soini, as shown clearly by the 1624 survey book for Ähtäri village listing three royal gamekeepers: Antti Kelli, Klemetti Suninpoika and Klemetti Soini. The later evidence shows that Klemetti Soini moved to Kahila (Toisvesi, Virrat) and that his patronymic was Heikinpoika.

The Only Plausible Explanation

The only plausible explanation for the Soini name in Ähtäri village is that it derives from the first name of Suni Leppäinen. Since Klemetti Soini was Heikinpoika, one must assume that Suni’s eldest son was Heikki. This Heikki had at least three sons — Klemetti, Erkki and Yrjö — all of whom used the Soini name. Thus the genealogical structure would be: Suni Leppäinen → Heikki Suninpoika → Klemetti, Erkki and Yrjö Heikinpoika Soini.

Klemetti moved to Toisvesi (Kahila, then Soini farm) around 1633. His descendants continued the Soini name there, and through the Kukkomäki branch the family also spread. Around 1650 two brothers — Heikki and Matti Klemetinpoika — settled in the Pori and Ulvila area, where they are known to have been regarded as of Savonian origin, reflected in their additional names Savo and Savolainen.

The Leppäinen Name in Savo

Both the Leppäinen and Lapveteläinen families are found in the oldest Savonian land books of 1540, with their main concentration in the Juva–Joroinen quarter. The surname Lapveteläinen is a tribal name, like Karjalainen or Jääskeläinen, indicating origin from the Lapee hundred of Karelia. The mixture of “Leppäinen” and “Lapveteläinen” for the same person in Ähtäri village sources is best explained by supposing they were the same family: members of the Lappvesi Leppäinen family, who could introduce themselves as “we are the Leppäinens from Lappvesi.”

The most probable Savonian homeland of the migrating Suni Leppäinen is Juva (Joroinen), though a more precise answer would require further archival research.

Family Table: The Lappvesi Leppäinen Clan (Soini and Suni)

Family 1.

I. Suni (Sven) LEPPÄINEN alias LAPVETELÄINEN, born probably in Savo, perhaps Juva (Joroinen), by the 1540s at the latest; alive 1606. He migrated from Savo to the wilderness parish of Ruovesi and founded a farm in Ähtäri village which later bore his name Suni; farmer there 1567–1606.

Children (probably born in Savo):

• ? Matti Sveninpoika, farmer in Pedersöre parish 1576–1612
• ? Heikki Suninpoika, b. approx. 1560s → Family 2 (Soini)
• ? Suni Suninpoika, b. approx. no later than c.1560 → Family 9 (Suni)

The subsequent generations branch into the Soini of Toisvesi (Virrat), the Kukkola family of Ähtäri, the Suni farm branch of Ähtäri, and the 17th-century settlers in the Pori–Ulvila area of Satakunta.