Last name origin & meaning: Finnish: topographic name from autio ‘uninhabited’,
‘abandoned’, denoting a farm or field that had fallen into disuse. In
northern Finland the word means ‘spacious’, ‘wide’ and is a frequent
place name; there are also farms so named in eastern areas, which gave
rise to the surname. It spread to the south with the name conversion
movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
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