Korhonen

Korhonen is a surname originating in Finland, where it is the most common surname.[1] The most common surname in Finland was Virtanen before 2009, when the number of people with the surname Korhonen exceeded the number of people with the surname Virtanen for the first time.[2][3]

Look up Korhonen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The word 'korho' is not used in standard Finnish, but it and words derived from it are used in some dialects, and there are also related words both in standard Finnish and in closely related languages.[4] In Karelian 'korhottoa' means "to be or move upright", "to have one's head up high", "to raise", "to shake threateningly", "to brandish", and "to perk up one's ears", and 'korhota' means "to rise", "to move up or upwards", "to get up", "to go up", "to become wealthy", and "to become rich".[5][6] Similar standard Finnish words are, for example, kohottaa, korottaa, and kohota.

'Korho' has meant "proud", "rich", and "boastful" in the southern parts of Finnish Lapland, and in Satakunta and Pirkanmaa it has meant "large man". In some dialects 'korho' has meant "hearing-impaired", and it seems that this meaning was most likely derived from the "to perk up one's ears" sense of 'korhottaa'. In some places 'korho' has meant "slightly stupid", "inattentive", and "clumsy": it appears likely that these meanings were derived from the "hearing-impaired" sense. Dialectal nouns derived from 'korho' are, for example, 'korhopää' from Pöytyä meaning roughly "one with a head of upright hair", and 'korholaiho' from Ylistaro meaning "a crop of cereal growing upright".[7]

The name originates from eastern Finland and is much older than its closest competitor for the title of the most common Finnish surname, Virtanen.