When I was born, my parents decided to call me Kalle. Kalle is like Charles, or Charlie, in Finnish. (In Finland, little Kalle is the equivalent of the little Johnny of the jokes).
So, they told everybody that they had got a baby boy and that his name was Kalle. My godmother, my aunt, went out and bought a little present to her little nephew, as is customary in Finland. She bought a little spoon, and had "Kalle" engraved in it.
Well, you already know that things took another turn along the way, as my father decided that Risto would be a more fitting name for me. And to make sure it was not the most common name in Finland, he checked the Helsinki phone book and found zero Risto Pakarinens. That settled it, Risto it was. (Not that I am the only
Risto Pakarinen in Finland...)
My other name is Kalevi which is obviously another form of Kalle. I just hope they changed that, too, and didn't even think of calling me Kalle Kalevi...
Anyway, what's pretty strange is that even though 34617 people have been called Kalle since 1899 and only 30259 Risto, between 1960 and 1979 - when I was born - Risto beat Kalle 6696 to 3613. (And there was also one woman among those Ristos!). This year, Kalles lead by 159 to 24.
I still have the spoon. The height and weight were correct.
