About twenty years ago, Anna Kosztovics, a Swedish social worker and ardent feminist, found herself pregnant and irritated. In a recent interview with The Guardian, she revealed thinking “if this is a girl, I have to have a word for her genitals.” According to Kosztovics, the names that Swedes typically used were either too negative, too medical, or far too adult. Confronted with this onomastic dilemma, Kosztovics decided to search for a girl-friendly name herself. After polling her girlfriends about what names they used, she happened upon one she really liked: snippa. Not satisfied with keeping her discovery to herself, the social worker began to energetically promote the adoption of the name amongst nurses. The name was a hit. In 2006, it was officially added to the Swedish language and is now an entry in the Svenska Akademiens Ordlista.
For more on the evolution of the name snippa, click here.