Karjala Family History

Finnish: habitational name from farms so named mostly containing the root of the ethnonym or the old Savonian surname Karjalainen ‘Karelian Orthodox’ referring to Karjala the Finnish name for Karelia a historical province of Finland now divided between Finland and Russia.

In some cases the farm name Karjala is composed of karja ‘cattle’ which is sometimes a shortening from a nearby placename beginning with Karja- (e.g. Karjalahti ‘cattle bay’ or Karjaniemi ‘cattle cape’) + the locative suffix -la.

Established as a hereditary surname since the 19th century in western Finland chiefly in Ostrobothnia.