Nameology

The names of places here in the neighbourhood can seem to be Finnish, but are often Swedish or Pre-Nordic. One example is Röyttä, South of Haparanda in Finland. The Swedish colonizers came here by boat 700 years ago and gave names to islands and shores in their language, which is similar to the Kalix dialect. An old Swedish word for stony shore is gryt, in Pre-Nordic, Kalix dialect it is gröyt. They came here,saw a stony shore and called it Gröyt. The Finns can't say two consonants in the beginning of a word, so they called it Röyttä. An other example is the island Kraaseli. Gråsäl, Grey Seal, Kraaseli. In Luleå one island is called Gråsjälören. One island in the Torne river is named by Germans, Tanskinsaari, Danzig Island. Danzig is now called Gdansk, in Poland. An interesting word is the name of the island Suutari, shoemaker. In Latin sutor means shoemaker,taylor. In ancient English sutere and Eng. dialect souter.In ancient Sw. sutare,swthar. In Sw. the island is called Skomakaren. There is also a fish named sutare.