Finnish Markkus break world record

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Finnish Markkus were able to smash the official world record for the largest number of people with the same first name in one place. A total of 1,281 men called Markku gathered in Helsinki’s Senate Square on Saturday afternoon.
      The impressive group of men broke the former record of 1096 Mohammeds registered in Dubai in 2005.
      The Markkus celebrated their achievement by climbing the steps leading up to Helsinki’s Lutheran Cathedral and forming the text Me Markut (”Us Markkus”).
      ”Ad honorem nominis nobilis Markku”, shouted Markku Rimpelä, the chief of the Markku Alliance. The others responded by yelling ”Markku” in unison.
      ”I’ve got goose-pimples, and I feel fantastic!” sighed Chief Markku Rimpelä happily.
      Rimpelä stressed that the fixed points in the life of Markkus are ”the wife and the coffin”.
     
The record was already on the cards well before the scheduled 15:00 deadline, after hundreds of Markkus had shown up to register by presenting a picture ID, as the Senate Square began to be crowded with men in their 50s and 60s.
      Another 100 or so Markkus joined the Markku Alliance at the event.
      ”I am one of the babyboomers, born in 1949. In elementary school I had four classmates with the same name”, said one of the new members, Markku Kauppinen, the CEO of the Local Government Pensions Institution.
      Kauppinen was somewhat concerned about the future of the name Markku, saying that new babies with the name Markku are needed.
     
However, even though the name is fast declining in popularity, one Markku aged under 30 was found in the crowd.
      ”I got the name from to my father’s brother. Uncle Markku had just died when I was born, and it was self-evident that I would be christened Markku”, reported Markku Hyyrynmäki, 29, from Tampere.
     
As the story above suggests, Markku was an astonishingly common first name in immediate post-war Finland.
      Between 1940 and 1959, a total of 29,430 Markkus were registered, and in the 50s it was the tenth most common boy's name.
      The figure was halved for the next 20 years, to 15,096, and between 1980 and 1999 there were just 2,807 of them.
      But worse was to come: only 276 between 2000 and 2007, and just twelve this year.
      Markku is a classic Finnish case of names that come into vogue and are "done to death", resulting in a complete collapse in succeeding generations, as parents think twice about giving their infant "an old man's name" or something associated with a great-aunt.
      Markkus (and Marks and Marcuses presumably) celebrate their name-day on April 25th.


Links:
  Population Register Centre: Name search

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