Tapio

According to Saarikivi (2022), from tavata (dialectally also "to catch, reach") + -io, and thus as a name for a god of the hunt. The name has also been connected with Estonian taba (“padlock”) and Livonian tabā (“padlock”) (both connected with respective cognates of tavata), hinting at a theoretical noun *tapa (“trap”) (not attested in Finnish), which could have served as the direct etymon. Koivulehto took a different view, likewise connecting the word with tavata, but instead citing a Germanic comparandum, Proto-Germanic *gadōbiz (whence Old English gedēfe), proposing it as evidence of a semantic shift within Finnic (parallel to the development of Mielikki) through a sense like "lenient, amenable". The surname is attested since 1479 (as part of a surname already in 1469), whereas the given name was first used in the late 19th century.