Family name origins & meanings
- Finnish : from niemi ‘peninsula’, ‘headland’, originally a habitational name from a farm so named for its situation. In the late 19th century it was a popular ornamental adoption, so much so that people then began to change it for a less common name. It occurs chiefly in western Finland. In America, it is also found as an abbreviation of other surnames containing this element, such as Rajaniemi, Sotaniemi, and Syrj(a:)niemi.