What's in a Name?

[dulcinea]

I was listening to a performance of Mahler's Third by Esa-Pekka Salonen when I realized I have no idea what that Christian name is. Is there a website that shows how different names are spelled in different languages? Paavo, for example: is that the Finnish equivalent of Paul?

[Lance]

I was listening to a performance of Mahler's Third by Esa-Pekka Salonen when I realized I have no idea what that Christian name is. Is there a website that shows how different names are spelled in different languages? Paavo, for example: is that the Finnish equivalent of Paul?

You bring up an interesting point. I don't know the English equivalent of these Scandinavian names. Paavo/Paul sounds reasonable. But Esa-Pekka ... what could possibly compare with that, in English? Let see if we get a good answer from one of our Scandianvian friends on board.

[PJME]

Hi, I just want to say that Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and virtually has -very little /no?- connection with the Indo-European language families.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_language gives plenty of information.

at least 109 finnish names are given their meaning at :
http://www.sci.fi/~kajun/finns/meanings.htm

Pekka is derived from old Finnish name Petrus (which in turn comes from the Greek name Petros which means rock), English name Peter has same origin as Pekka. Nameday June 29th

I wish you all good reading!

[Ralph]

Esa-Pekka roughly translates to "He who will bring great music to the world, both through conducting and composing."