Nimien

Nimien is the genitive plural form of the Finnish noun nimi, meaning "name." It is used to indicate possession or association with more than one name, and it appears in contexts such as lists, descriptions, and legal or administrative writing that reference multiple names.

Common constructions include nimien määrä (the number of names) and nimien kirjoitusasu (the spellings or orthography of the names). The form also appears in phrases describing changes or characteristics attributed to a set of names, for example nimien muutos (changes to names).

Morphology and usage: In Finnish, nimi belongs to a class of i-ending nouns that form the genitive plural with the suffix -ien. The genitive singular is nimen, while the nominative plural is nimet. Nimien therefore represents the genitive plural, and is typically used after verbs and nouns that govern a genitive construction, remaining lower-case in ordinary text.

Etymology and notes: The word nimi derives from a Proto-Finnic root meaning "name," with cognates found in related Finnic languages. Nimien follows the general pattern for i-ending stems, where the genitive plural takes -ien. In contemporary Finnish, nimien usage is standard in linguistic, bureaucratic, and formal writing when referring to multiple names.