About the names (2) of my Pekka Wall series

Here are some more names and their “etymology” from The Birthmark Murders. I had great fun creating them, and I hope you’ll find a few chuckles in the novel, thanks to the little jokes I’ve planted in the names.

Aroha Allardice

Mikael’s mother, Aroha, is half Māori but never had warm or close relationships with her family. She was a cultural outsider, and when she fell in love with Mikael’s father in London, she felt for the first time that she belonged to someone and somewhere. Her story is a sad one: never seeing the love of her life again, but raising their son alone—a bittersweet journey, made even more tragic because Mikael was the spitting image of his father and even carried the same birthmark, a spiral. In Māori, Aroha means love.

Mikael Allardice

Mikael was named after his theatre director father. The Allardice family has a long history in Scotland, with records dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. Allardice Castle, situated on the family’s ancestral lands, still stands as a historical landmark. I stumbled upon this name by chance, watching a documentary some years ago, and when I began writing the novel I thought it fitting to give Aroha’s father a name steeped in history. In this way I hinted that Mikael was cut off from his roots—both Finnish and Scottish—while the Māori part bound him to New Zealand. His name carried a strong, almost painful longing.

Rami Rillumarei aka Bun

The clever, business-savvy studio owner and sound engineer Rami was named after a mischievous little beagle belonging to a friend of mine in Helsinki. The dog was full of mischief, much like the character in the novel Rami Rillumarei.
The surname Rillumarei refers to a style of post-war Finnish popular music: light-hearted, comic music hall songs that Finns loved. So, Rami Rillumarei has his roots in the Finnish tradition of making fun of haughty nitpickers.

Helen Heimlich-Bruner

This was a wordplay. In German, heimlich means secret—Helen’s past was full of them. Bruner is Swedish and means “more brown”. I used this combination to suggest that Helen had, to put it mildly, some rather “brown” aspects she preferred to keep hidden.

Chirpy Hipponen

Originally, Chirpy was Sirkku, but as she was a little vain, I changed it to Chirpy. She was also a bit large in her “smaller-than-life” way, especially when stalking Mikael Långberg. Hipponen is a diminutive form of hippo. I think you see the point.

Karl Pihtari

Karl got his first name from Charles, the King. He desperately wanted to be a prince of sorts, the king of Ryväskylä, so I christened him Karl—the Finnish version of Charles.
The surname Pihtari means “scrooge”. He always wanted more, but unfortunately lacked the business acumen to achieve it. A slimy character.

Kamilla Kuristaja-Kannel

Karl Pihtari’s second wife, the principal of the biggest high school in town. Kamilla was named after a certain mistress of the Prince of Wales. Like her namesake, she had a taste for extramarital affairs and set her sights on Karl for his money and prestige.
Kuristaja means “constrictor”, while Kannel is the Finnish national instrument, a triangular, stringed instrument somewhat like a guitar without a neck. Kamilla liked to pull strings and pose as traditional—hence Kannel.

Irene Iltalempi

Irene is perhaps the character I love most. She is a genuine actress, talented as hell, but she never made the final leap to stardom because she valued life and love more than fame.
To me, Irene is one of the most beautiful names for a woman. It has sharp edges but ends with a soft, mellifluous sound—exactly how I imagined this wonderfully eccentric lady.
Her surname means “love at twilight”: a bittersweet yet beautiful expression that suggests love does not count years, and even at sunset the skin can still feel the warmth of the day now passing.

So, now you know. Every name has its meaning, and I sometimes spent hours—if not days—finding the one that matched the “karma” of its bearer.

In my second book, Handful, there are some new names, but I’ll write about them later. The same goes for the third one, The Triumvirate Murders.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little peek behind my thinking.