nimessä

Nimessä is the inessive singular form of the Finnish noun nimi, meaning "in the name." It is used to indicate that an action, statement, or authority is anchored in or attributed to the thing named. In everyday Finnish it appears most often in formal, ceremonial, or rhetorical contexts, including religious phrases such as Jumalan nimessä (in the name of God) and political or collective uses such as kansan nimissä (in the name of the people).

Morphology and usage are typical of Finnish nouns. The base noun nimi inflects for case, with nimessä representing the location or context “in the name.” Other common forms include nimen (genitive, “of the name”), nimeen (illative, “into the name”), nimellä (adessive, “on the name”), and nimeksi (translative, “as a name”). The word can participate in idiomatic expressions that foreground authority, source, or justification.

Etymology traces the word nimi to the Finnic nucleus for “name,” with cognates across Finnic languages, such as Estonian nimi. It is a basic building block in Finnish, appearing in many compounds and fixed phrases. The form nimessä is therefore a standard grammatical tool for expressing location or source in relation to a name.

See also: nimi, nimitys, nimeäminen.