I'm Michael Suodenjoki - a software engineer living in Kgs. Lyngby, north of Copenhagen, Denmark. This is my personal site containing my blog, photos, articles and main interests.

About the family name Suodenjoki

Updated 2011.01.23 17:10 +0100

Dansk version

The Finish ancestors

Lavia (red dot), Finland

My surname Suodenjoki is as the tradition prescribes given to me after my father. My father - Mikko Suodenjoki - came as one out of many of the about 3777 finish children to Denmark as 6-year-old and war child under the second world war. After the war my father traveled back to Finland for a short period, but after a difficult time and in a family with 10 siblings and the joy from the stay in Denmark, he choose to go back to Denmark forever. Here he was raised by his foster parents and took an education as mate (ships officer).

The surname Suodenjoki comes from Finland - or Suomi (note the first three letters) as they say up there in the northeastern corner of Scandinavia. The family name is however not a widespread surname - and what I know of, it is in fact only my family that uses it. That means that the Finish part of the family enjoys the same pleasures and difficulties as we here in Denmark.

The name Suodenjoki is taken as surname by my great grandfather Frans Robert Alaruisniemi-Suodenjoki (1856.02.12-1901.06.09) after the little stream Suodenjoki with the same name (joki in Finish means stream). The stream is located in the area around Lavia / Haunia (Tampere), where the family has lived for several generations. Precisely why the family choose to change the surname is unknown.

Pronunciation

The Danish part of the family Suodenjoki pronounces the surname in a very Danish way - more or less directly as "Suo-den-jo-ki", however when it is said quickly the u-letter often disappears becoming "So-den-jo-ki".

The Danish part of the family

Mikko Suodenjoki, 75 years, September 18, 2010. Kim Suodenjoki, May 5, 2002. Karl-Emil Suodenjoki, 1 year, September 10, 2002.

Related

Anne Bengtsson (married Suodenjoki, born Opferman), June 6, 2009. Pia Olsen (Kim's spouse - not married), May 5, 2002. Caja Tangemann (Mikko's spouse - not married), December 23, 2000.