Finn

Finn comes from Germanic roots, and it means fair or white. In Old Norse the name appears as Finnr, carried by Scandinavian settlers across the North. The brightness sits in the word, a reference to fair hair or pale coloring.

The oldest Finn in English writing is a Frisian king. He appears in Beowulf, in the passage scholars call the Finnsburg episode, a tale of a broken truce and winter grief. This Finn is Germanic through and through, which fits where the name began.

English kept the short, hard shape of it. Finn is one syllable. It reads the same on a rune stone and a modern birth certificate.

On a Polish class register, Finn now sits among the Antonis and Kacpers, its meaning of fair still plain.