Aino (character)

Aino is a figure in the Kalevala, a Finnish national epic by Elias Lönnrot. Lönnrot invented the name Aino, meaning "the only one"; the original poems only call her "the only daughter" or "the only sister".
Her brother Joukahainen loses a singing contest to Väinämöinen and promises Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage to the winner. Aino's mother is pleased to marry her daughter to someone so famous and well-born, but Aino does not want to marry such an old man and drowns herself. She returns to taunt the grieving Väinämöinen as a perch.
During the national romantic period at the end of the 19th century the mythological name Aino was adopted as a Christian name by Fennoman activists. Among the first to be named so were Aino Järnefelt, born 1871 and Aino Krohn, born 1878.
According to the Finnish Population Register Centre, over 60,000 women have been given the name. It was especially popular in the early 20th century and the most common first name for women in the 1920s. It has returned to favor in the 21st century; it was the most popular name for girls in Finland in 2006 and 2007.