Virtanen

Herkunft & Geschichte

Formed from the Finnish noun 'virta', meaning 'stream', 'current', or 'river', combined with the diminutive suffix '-nen', yielding the sense 'of the stream' or 'little stream dweller'. The name belongs to the large family of Finnish landscape surnames that reflect the country's extraordinary network of rivers, lakes, and waterways — Finland has over 188,000 lakes. Virtanen is most heavily distributed in the provinces of Savo and North Karelia in eastern Finland. It consistently ranks among the two most common surnames in the country, neck-and-neck with Korhonen.