Naming tells the researcher how people conceive of the world. What places are important enough to warrant a name? What are these names? What do they indicate about a person’s relationship with their surroundings, with society at large and with various communities? And what is a name exactly; how is distinct from other words in a language? All these are central to the work of an onomastician.

There are names in all language systems and the functions of names in different languages are generally the same. Indeed, onomastics is a truly international research area. International conferences and symposia are organised on a regular basis. Terhi Ainiala is active within ICOS (the International Council of Onomastic Sciences) and from 2008 to 2014 was on the Council’s executive board.

I got interested in onomastics during Eero Kiviniemi’s lectures for the Finnish department. In the spring term of my second year as a Finnish language undergraduate I got to go on a fieldtrip collecting place names in Vehmaa, south-west Finland. After that I was an onomastician!

I dream about a multidisciplinary project in which toponyms are examined from different points of view and where toponymy constitutes a body of research material. The project would combine research findings and teaching, and the students would present their degree work as part of the project. In a way my dream has already come true in the multidisciplinary projects examining Helsinki. My hope is that these are a source of joy and benefit for local people and others who have dealings in the city.

• ”Helvetinkolusta Kivesjärvelle. Mitä suomalaiset paikannimet kertovat?” (‘From Hell’s hole to Lake Bollocks –what can you learn from Finnish place names?’), Terhi Ainiala in conversation with Johanna Lehtonen, place name planner, and Roman Schatz, YLE Radio 1 Maamme-kirja programme 19 January 2015
• Terhi Ainiala’s blog, Institute for the Languages of…

In her lecture video (Spring 2012 Faculty of Arts Studia Humaniora lecture series) Terhi Ainiala describes the place names since the 19th century as well as the issue of what languages official names are given and the terms used by the locals to talk about places.

Terhi Ainiala, university lecturer and onomastician is involved in several research projects and a range of other academic activity.

• Dyos Prize for the best article submitted to Urban History (Cambridge University Press) in 2008. Article Industrial urbanization, working-class lads and slang toponyms in early twentieth-century Helsinki by Heikki Paunonen, Jani Vuolteenaho & Terhi Ainiala.
• ‘Best urban essay’ 2005: ’Urbaanin paikannimistön haasteita – kielitieteen ja maantieteen tieteenalatraditioista arkiseen käyttönimistöön…