The Finnish first family has announced the name they have chosen for their son, born on 2 February 2018 in Helsinki. President Sauli Niinistö confirmed in a Facebook post that he and his wife Jenni Haukio brought their son to be baptized by retired bishop for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland Eero Huovinen on Saturday.
He was christened with the name Aaro Veli Väinämö Niinistö. Aaro is his first name, and he has two middle names, as is the custom in many Finnish families. The child's second middle name of Väinämö mirrors President's Niinistö's own middle name.
The Finnish Population Register Centre's name service, which keeps track of the number of name occurrences in Finland, shows that as of this year, there have been close to 12,500 men named Aaro in Finland. The statistics show that the name was popular in the early 1900s, fell out of use in the 1960s and reached peak numbers again in the early 2000s.
President Niinistö has two grown sons named Nuutti and Matias from an earlier marriage. His first wife was killed in a car crash in 1995.