Korhonen

Korhonen is a surname originating in Finland, where it is the first most common[1] surname. Before 2009, the most common surname in Finland was Virtanen but in 2009 the number of people with the surname Korhonen exceeded the number of people with the surname Virtanen for the first time.[2][3]

Look up Korhonen in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

It has no transparent meaning in modern Finnish, but is likely to have been derived from the mostly archaic word 'korho'. In some dialects, this word is used to mean a person of poor hearing or a numb-witted person. On the other hand, professor Alfred Salmela suggested in 1970 that the word 'korho' is a loan from the Baltic languages and has meant "old, village elder or chief". It still reported to carry a meaning of "proud, rich and boastful" in the southern parts of Finnish Lapland.

In addition, in languages closely related to Finnish such as Karelian, Estonian and Ludic the word 'korho' has the meaning "raised or upright". As an example of a word derived from this, the Karelian verb 'korhottaa' means "to be or move upright, to have one's head up high, to raise, to shake threateningly or brandish and to listen attentively". There are similar examples from Finnish dialects such as 'korhopää' from Pöytyä meaning roughly "one with a head of hair standing on end" and 'korholaiho' recorded from Ylistaro meaning "a crop growing upright". Also, in modern (both formal and colloquial) Finnish 'korottaa' means "to raise".

The name originates from Eastern Finland and is much older than its closest competitor for the title of the most common Finnish surname, Virtanen.