STATISTICS
According to the finnish population register center's surname statistics (29/3 2010) there are 3834 persons in Finland who have Huotari as their surname and 1466 whose former name was Huotari.
The finnish population register doesn't obviously keep track of foreign citizens with the Huotari name unless they happen to live in Finland so unfortunately I don't have any statistics regarding the name elsewhere. If you happen to know some figures - please let me know.
The numbers above make it a rather small family even to finnish standards. As a comparison the most common surname in Finland - Virtanen is carried by approximately 23 600 finns.
ORIGIN
The Huotari, Huotarinen & Hotari-names are commonly regarded as having developed in Karelia from the orthodox christian name Feodor, Fedor (greek. Theodoros). From Karelia the names should then have spread to Savonia & Bothnia. In Karelia the name has been and is probably even today in parts of eastern Karelia used as a male first name. In the orthodox areas the form Huotarinen is also very common.
In his book 'Vierasperäisiä muinaisnimiä Etelä-Pohjanmaalta ja muualta Suomesta' (eng. Ancient foreign names from southern Ostrobothnia and elsewhere in Finland) Heikki Klemetti even regards the possibility of german origin, because according to him in the german lingual area there can be found the ancient name Huotari as such, Huotaren Mauer (year 1110) and Huotara (11th century).
I've heard many legends over the years regarding the origin of the name. Here's a few of those.
By one legend the name was made up when a Finn was going to be ubducted by the Russian army. They said he made up the name Huotari so as to not disgrace his name. And the name should be meaning something about rock and shore.
As far as I know the name hasn't anything to do with neither rock nor shore in any language and doesn't actually mean anything in particular in Finnish either. And this thing with the russian army - sounds like a real legend. :-) At least I haven't heard anything to confirm this. The first Huotari in Kuhmo - Tuomas actually probably got a 5 year long tax deliverance in 1594 as a reward for his involment in the 25 year war (during 1570–1595) against the russians.
Speaking of legends. Another interesting one is the rumour according to which the name of the village of Kuhmo (nowadays town) originated from one of the first inhabitants the first Huotari in the area - Tuomas Huotari (or Thomas Hothare as spelled in the church registers) who had a bump (Kuhmu in finnish) on his forehead. The true story and a more dull explanation :-) is probably that the name came from a surname from another of the first inhabitants, Kauppi Kuhmalainen.
Another legend written down by the former vicar of Kuhmo K.A. Pfaler regarding the war mentioned earlier explains that Tuomas got wounded in the head. And the open wound was then covered with a piece of wood. Tuomas should thus have been called Tammipää-Huotari meaning Oak Head - Huotari.
TUOMAS HUOTARI
Tuomas Huotari (Thomas Hothare) the first Huotari in Kuhmo, who was born between 1559-1567 (before 1577). According to Ilmari Huotari's research: "Tuomas was probably born in Uusikirkko, Karelia and moved to Kuhmo between 1595-1604". Tuomas settled down in Kalliojärvi in the Lammasjärvi village and appeared in the taxregisters in 1606. In Savonia (Visulahti) people with the surname Huotari inhabitated at least six houses as early as 1562. Tuomas was as earlier stated probably born in uusikirkko, Karelia. He might have travelled to Kuhmo via Visulahti but it's not known whether the Huotari families of Visulahti where related to Tuomas. In Uusikirkko there has been three brothers of Huotari. One of these (Thomas Hådarin) got a 5 year long tax deliverance in 1594 as meantioned earlier as a reward for his involment in the war against the russians.
regards, Markku Huotari