Hello, all!
So today I learned that my name Kiven seems to mean “rock” in finnish. I have not met a single Kiven here in Mexico… I saw some Kiven in China on the internet, so this is cool to me. I was watching [this Linux origins video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Q9KnYSVLc) and saw my name in the little screen shown around minute 6:20. It reads: “A. Kiven kootut teokset”. And looking at Google I get results for Aleksis Kivi and a book. I see that Kivi also means “rock”.
Do you know why it sometimes appears like Aleksis Kivi and sometimes Aleksis Kiven?
Is Kiven a last name? Is it common over there? Any other curious things about this word 😛
Edit: format.
Update: thanks a lot to everyone! Everyone was really helpful. Thanks for taking the time to reply :3
Kind regards.
20 comments
“Kiven” is just genitive form of “kivi”. Nothing else.
Kiven is the genitive form of kivi, which means a stone or a rock. So A. Kiven would be A. Kivi’s. Kivi is a last name, but not too common. There are currently 1459 people alive with the last name Kivi in Finland.
Rock’s
Original surname of Aleksis Kivi was Stenvall – a stone wall in swedish.
[Name service](https://verkkopalvelu.vrk.fi/nimipalvelu/default.asp?L=3) of Finnish Digital and Population Data Service Agency shows that there are actually some people in Finland with that name, although their number is so small they won’t even tell the exact number. Instead of Finnish, I would rather suspect a name ending with -en coming from Sweden, like there are lot of that kind of names for example Siven, which is rather common also in Finland.
Finnish doesn’t use prepositions to the same degree as Germanic languages. Instead the nouns, verbs, and adjectives themselves are [conjugated and have different suffixes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/LanguageMemes/comments/mh6pb8/i_have_no_idea_why_people_say_that_the_finnish/)
Kivi is “a rock”, kiven is “a rock’s” (singular genitive form). [Here’s the word’s inflection table.](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kivi#Declension_2)
De la Rocha 😉
No kivi is the right word your name means nothing
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kivi#Finnish](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kivi#Finnish) ….
https://youtu.be/EM41CHtBTL4
An then there is Kives. Friendly way to say Kiven
Also funny enough, ”kiven sisällä” translates to ”inside the prison” in that context genitive form of rock can also translate to prison!
Well not exactly kivi is rock
Bro, admit it, your mom mixed up Kevin in the birth certificate.
Maybe even on purpose 😉 hispanic moms.
Kiven is a possessive form of kivi
Kiven is the genetive form of Kivi. So ‘A. Kiven’ means ‘A Kivi’s’. The finnish language modifies the subject instead of using another word like ‘de’ or an apostrophe S to express the possessive.
I call my balls my stones “Kivet” but wait thats a good thing, thats like glorifying them, like my jewelry. Its a praisal. not as bad as calling them my balls you know xD hard to explain.
Rock and roll
Kivi ja kieriä
Another fact: In the Finnish provinces, people don’t call people [Firstname] [Lastname], they call them [Lastname genitive] [Firstname]. So if a man’s official name is Timo Kivi, he would colloquially be called “Kiven Timo”. And Timo Kivi’s car (officially “Timo Kiven auto”) would become “Kiven Timon auto”.
Did you ask your parents if you were meant to be named Kevin but someone got confused?