Let me back up a little. I believe you asked if the american distributor named the respective rifles and I would agree that the story is that the names came from Firearms International. I also think they may have come from Jan Winter said:
Herein, from "Sako 1921-1971", lies the fact of the "names". We all draw a Goose-egg! But, as Misago speculates - SAKO had the last word."When there began to be a demand for heavier big-game rifles
Sako started to make Sako Mausers, to the Belgian FN actions,
at the beginning of the fifties. Ten years later, however, Sako
designed a sporting gun of its own, much larger than its tore_
runners and of bolt-action type. lt was typenamed L 61 R and
is available in three models, Standard, Mannlicher and Deiuxe.
As the total number of calibers is eight, one could arranqe side
by side 24 different Sako L 61 R rifles.
Many Americans are sentimentally attached to their traditional
leveraction rifle. Probably this is why requests lor such a rifle
were made to Sako in the fifties. A new mechanism and lever
action combined with the calibers .30g and .243 were desired.
The prototype was ready in 1960. lt had to be revised twice,
however, when new types of cartridges emerged in the meantime.
Eino Mdkinen, who for more than 30 years has been engaged in
the designing of firearms speaks of rilles as of his children:',The
prototypew ent to the U.S.A. ,i t said i t would only visi t the photo_
grapher and soon be back. pity that it was the only one, because
it did not come back. But it did send a photo of itself and it was
quite impressive." lt was not untjl 1g62 that production of the
first series could be started, the prototype having been some_
what revised. The first lever action VL 63 in cat. .243 and .308
was manufacturedo n the 1st of Apr i l 1g63.
Thus uninterrupted designing and development work over some
twenty years had resulted in a large assortment of different
car t r idgesa nd four typeso f r i f les,L 46.,15 79,61 R and VL 63.
The code names tell quite a lot to an expert but as Sako as such
was pronounced Seiko in English and interpreted as Japanese, i t
was time to do something about the code names: L 461 was
named Vixen, L 579 Forester, L 61R Finnbear and VL 63 Finn_
wolf. Patriotic Sako people thought that otherwise Japan would
acquire unearned prestige."
S-A