Jalkanen

Jalkanen is a Finnish surname. Notable people with the surname include:


 * Kustaa Jalkanen (1862–1921), Finnish farmer and politician
 * Kalle Jalkanen (1907–1941) - a Finnish cross-country skier who won a gold medal at the 1936 Winter Olympics
 * Kauko Jalkanen (1918–2007), Finnish fencer
 * Timo Jalkanen (born 1936), Finnish diplomat and jurist
 * Kari Tapio (1945–2010; birth name Kari Tapani Jalkanen) - a Finnish schlager-singer & one of the most popular singers in Finland for decades.
 * Markku Jalkanen (born 1954), Finnish scientist, biotech entrepreneur and businessman
 * Sirpa Jalkanen (born 1954), Finnish scientist, working in the field of biomedical and clinical medicine
 * Karl James Jalkanen (born 1958 in Chassell, Michigan) is a researcher in Molecular Biophysics at the Technical University of Denmark in the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology


 * Ilja Jalkanen, a vocalist for Kiuas, a heavy metal band from Espoo, Finland.

Meaning
The prefix Jalka generally means "foot," but also can refer to the leg of a stool or an animal's paw. Jalka- thus has a loose meaning, and when the prefix is added to the common -nen Finnish name ending it loses its colloquial meaning. Like most Finnish names, whether Jalkanen has a formal meaning is ambiguous. Generally, Finnish surnames do not have the same meaning schemes as other European names. If Finnish names were used to indicate a family's original trade (as with English and German names, like Miller, Shoemaker, Brewer, Smith, etc.) then the term "foot" or "Jalka" could refer to a profession such as a cobbler or tracker.