Kauniainen (; ) is a small town and a municipality of inhabitants () in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. It is surrounded and enclaved by the City of Espoo, in the Capital Region of Greater Helsinki. Kauniainen was founded by a corporation in 1906, AB Grankulla, that parcelled land and created a suburb for villas; Kauniainen received the status of a market town in 1920, the Finnish name in 1949 and the title of kaupunki ("city, town") in 1972. The municipal taxation rate in Kauniainen is the lowest in Finland (%), which has made the city attractive to high-income families. This in turn makes the average income generally high, making it possible to keep the taxation rate low without compromising the service to the inhabitants. Approximately of the population have Finnish as their mother tongue while are Swedish speakers. The dominant party in the city council has traditionally been the Swedish People's Party. Etymology The Swedish name Grankulla is composed by the Swedish words "gran" (spruce) and "kulle" (hill) and has been in use in this form since the beginning of the 1900s. Earlier the place was known under its dialectal form Gränkull. The name Gränkull is found on modern maps as the name of the hill where the water tower in Kauniainen is located. The Finnish name of the town, Kauniainen, is derived from the name of a homestead that was located in Kauniainen called Kauniais. It was named after an estate near Tampere. The Finnish name was taken into use in the 1930s and was made the official name of the town alongside the Swedish name in 1949. Heraldry The explanation for the coat of arms is "a golden, red squirrel sitting on a blue plate, holding a black spruce cone in its forefeet, with three golden roses side by side above it." The squirrel holding the spruce cone of the coat of arms indirectly refers to the Swedish name of Kauniainen (Grankulla). The roses on the subject depict the villa settlements in the locality. The coat of arms was designed by Ahto Numminen and approved by the Kauniainen Chamber of Commerce at its meetings on June 5, 1951, and January 10, 1952. The Ministry of the Interior confirmed the use of the coat of arms on March 11 of the same year. History Around 10,000 years ago, after the Ice Age, only a few islets were visible