This is fun because Maija is a very common name for women in Finland. Not this generation particularly but it's like the Finnish equivalent of Mary or something to the generation that was born around 30's-40's. For some reason it was exploding in popularity from the the 1900's (as in the oughts, not the century) to 1930 in Finland. And seeing how Tolkien definitely took influence from Finnish, I wonder if there might be an actual connection.

edit I changed the example name from Jennifer to Mary as I realised "Mary Poppins" is translated as "Maija Poppanen" in Finnish

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

For some reason it was exploding in popularity from the the 1900’s (as in the oughts, not the century) to 1930 in Finland.

It's because everyone wanted to associate their kids with the English Queen Mary. Idk why. My Italian grandparents named all their kids after English royalty too.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In France I know a Maia, in Sweden a Maja!

[–] Dasus@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Oh I haven't heard of French Maias, but I did know Sweden has Maja, that's probably where it came to Finnish from, I'd wager. Yeah, Wikipedia says the Scandic equivalent is Maja, yeah. It's a deviation on "Mary" as I suspected from Mary Poppins.

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Maia the bee!