Pohja

Name

The centre of the historical parish is located at the innermost end ("bottom") of the bay known in Finnish as Pohjanpitäjänlahti (also Pohjanlahti). The place name refers to this geographical position; in this context Finnish pohja means "bottom" or "innermost part of a bay", comparable to the German term Bodden. The name was apparently given by early settlers from Häme, for whom the bay constituted an important waterway toward the Baltic Sea. Swedish-speaking settlers adopted the name in the form Pojo, which subsequently became the established form in Swedish usage. Before it was used as the name of the parish, it likely referred to the central settlement. The modern Finnish form Pohja represents a back-formation based on the Swedish name.