DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16848084
title: Finnish Toponyms in Central Sweden

description: This is the result of a hobby project intended to help me learn how to use QGIS (https://qgis.org).

The aim is to create a representative dataset of Finnish toponyms in central/north-central Sweden and map them using QGIS.

Data is included for the following historical counties ("landskap"):



Värmland

Dalarna

Västmanland

Gästrikland

Hälsingland

Medelpad

Ångermanland

Härjedalen

Laxå municipality in Västra Götaland

Data from Närke was examined, but no Finnish toponyms were found there.


Data was gathered by manually trawling through the toponym register at ISOF (https://ortnamnsregistret.isof.se/place-names) and cross-referencing Finnish toponyms with OpenStreetMap (https://www.openstreetmap.org) in order to gather coordinates and certify that the toponym is still extant. Most Finnish toponyms archived at the register could not be found on OpenStreetMap (I estimate that about one in five could).

Selection criterion was "unambiguously Finnish". This means that "paskalamm" was included but "vittjärn", though likely Finnish in origin, was not. In some cases, metadata from the register was taken into account (such as "Tennostorp" being also known as "Tennola"), onomastic literature was consulted (such as that available at https://www.isof.se/namn/ortnamn/ortnamnsserier/sveriges-ortnamn) and in rare cases, circumstantial evidence was used - such as a Finnish-sounding but unanalyzable toponym being located in a cluster of more obvious Finnish toponyms (e.g. "Kallatou").

The dataset contains the following files:



FinnTopo_Webmap.zip which contains the clickable map and the files needed to make it work.

finntopo.csv, the main data file

Readme.txt, which contains roughly the same information as this description


The spreadsheet finntopo.tsv contains data for the following variables:

column 0: name of the Finnish toponymcolumn 1: latitude (Web Mercator, EPSG:3857)column 2: longitude (Web Mercator, EPSG:3857)column 3: location type:



Hill

Lake

Island (includes peninsulas)

Bog

Forest (or other wilderness)

Settlement (farms, houses, human-made buildings)

Road

Stream

Bay


column 4: county name ("landskap")column 5: municipality ("kommun")column 6: structure of composite toponyms:



F: non-composite Finnish

FF: composite Finnish-Finnish

FS: composite Finnish-Swedish

And so on...


column 7: variants of commonly occurring terms:    /mäki/ ("hill"): MÄGG, MÄCK etc.    /niitty/ ("meadow"): NIT, NITT etc.    /lampi/ ("small lake"): LAMM, LAMP etc.    /järvi/ ("lake"): JÄRV, JÄRVI etc.    /suo/ ("bog"): SO, SU 

The webmap (Finntopo_Webmap.zip which contains finntopo_map.html and the folders "images", "layers", "resources", "styles" and "webfonts") was made in QGIS using the qgis2web plugin, using a low-resolution exported image of OpenStreetMap as a background layer. Clickable map icons contain variables 0-5 of the .tsv file. A legend to the icons is provided as Finntopo_Webmap_Legend.xlsx but they should be fairly self-explanatory.

To use the webmap, just unzip it somewhere and click on the .html file.
description: Version 1



Data with 463 toponyms

Clickable map using low-res OpenStreetMap image as background


To do in next update:



Expand dataset with focused search around toponym clusters and examining data from other counties

Get a nicer, more high-res background map