I have a girl in my office with that name and I don’t know what language it is.
I kind of want to know before I try to strike up a conversation, so I don’t seem too naive.
I had a classmate named Hyytianninen. He was half Caucasian, though, and his looks were Caucasian, so I couldn’t tell anything by looking at him. I think he said the name was Thai or Laotian but don’t quote me on that one.
If you really want to know, just ask her. She’s probably used to the question. Say something like it’s an interesting surname, and you wanted to ask her about it, to get the pronunciation right, etc. It’s a great ice breaker/conversation starter.
There’s nothing wrong with coming off as naïve. By asking, you’re doing something about your lack of knowledge, and that’s a great thing.
Lotsa "Y"s and ends in “inen”? Sounds Finnish.
Yes, ask her, moron*. Jeeze, it’s a miracle the species perpetuates with nearly every guy on the planet too shy to start conversations.
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- meant in the nicest sense of the word.
& 
- meant in the nicest sense of the word.
I’d have guessed that the name was Finnish. I agree that a decent opening line to a conversation would be “What language is Hyytinen?”
Hyytinens are mostly in Minnesota and Finland, with email names ending in .fi or suomi.net (Suomi is Finnish for Finland, as seen on their stamps.)
Elins are mostly in Norway, with towns of Oslo, Bergen, and Stavenger
Following the example of Tonio Kröger by Thomas Mann, where the title character was Italian-German,
I’d say the name is Norwegian(maternal)-Finnish(paternal).
Let us know what you find out “the hard way” - by asking her.
Another vote for Finnish here…Jaaskelainen, Paatelainen, etc etc.
So what the hey was my friend telling me? Oh well.
So Tech-Mex, didja talk to her yet? Huh? Huh??
I grew up in a VERY Finnish area (Finlanders, they’re called up there) and Hyytinen definitely has the sound of a Finlander name. The only thing I question is the spelling - all the people I know with that name spell it something like Heitinen.
Funny - I was 25 years old before I realized that “Stupid Finlander” jokes weren’t the norm around the country!
Definitely Finn. Does she pronounce it “Huy-ti-nen” (sort of scrunching up the first part in an impossible way)?
(Our Finnish family name was originally Riitijoki. We like vowels, I guess.)
Eveyone was in the right area, Scandiavia (Except your Thai friend)
But Tshirts hit it on the nose!
Dropzone - I guess you’ve never had a first conversation that started with the obvious and went quickly to silence. I need something to start with.
Anyway, I said “I mentioned your name to a friend and he said your first name was Norwegian and the last Finnish…”
She said I was right. I asked, “Are you from there?” and she said no, she was from Mound Minnesota.
Since I had waterskied on Lake Minnetonka, I told her I knew the place, and I lucked into joining her family’s water skiing plans for Sunday.
I’m still not sure how to get from there to “the miracle that the species perpetuates”, but whatever happens it’s got to beat my last few weekends.
“Something obvious?” Every conversation, pal. Read some of my posts here.
“Went quickly to silence?” But first I usually say something stupid.
Good luck with her. Knew a Finnish girl once. From a distance her hair looked ash blonde out of a bottle, but up close you could see that each hair was one of five colors, from white to red to brown, giving an overall appearance of ash blonde. I could have stared at her hair for weeks…
A minnesota girl, too? Sounds perfect. And it looks like you are handling the conversation just fine. The species stands a chance.