Virtanen Family History

Finnish: ornamental name from virta ‘stream’ + the surname suffix -nen adopted in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in southern southwestern and central Finland primarily by Finns who had no surnames.

It is the prototype of the popular nature-related surnames that were coined during the national awakening and it remained the most common surname in Finland until Korhonen overtook it in 201.

This standard Finnish variant is rare in the US where the surname is mostly spelled Wirtanen.