Eija

The name Aija and its variants represent a diminutive of Aina and a short form of Freja. Aina derives from the Finnish “ainoa,” meaning “only, the only one.” Elias Lönnrot, who composed the Kalevala, invented the name. In Nordic mythology and Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse the ‘lady’) is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, gold, war, and death. Like the name of the group of deities to which Freyja belongs, the Vanir, the name Freyja is not attested outside Scandinavia, unlike the goddess Frigg, who is certified as a goddess common to all Germanic peoples, and whose name is reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *frijjō. The origin of the name is “eijaa” a Finnish exclamation of joy. In the Greenlandic language, “aja” means “maternal aunt.”