Aino (given name)

Aino is a female given name used in Finland, Estonia, and Japan.

The name Aino, meaning "the only one" in Finnish, was devised by Elias Lönnrot, who compiled, from surviving oral folk sources which he had collected, the Kalevala. In this epic poem, Aino (mythology) is a beautiful girl who seems to wish to drown herself rather than marry the elderly Väinämöinen. She is later on unexpectedly lost in the water while bathing in a strange, unknown lake. In the original poems, she is mentioned as "the only daughter" (ainoa tyttö).