Dutch Girls’ Names: From Familiar to Wha……?

I love the name Feije. I know it’s a boy’s name, but it’s also used as a girls name. I prefer it as a girls name.

I think Dunya was a character in Crime and Punishment.

I love Isis. I didn’t know that Feline was a dutch name – its the name of Bambi’s doe-friend, pronounce Fah-Leen.

Love this post! Both my ancestors and my husband’s are from the Netherlands, so I found this very interesting. I dug up some family names this summer while trying to name our baby, including Fokeltje, Tjitske, Baaie, Wietske, Sipkje. The only ones I’m familiar with on the last list are Floortje and Meike. I can’t wait to see the boys’ list!

My dad is from the Netherlands (moved to the US at fifteen) so I love this list! Especially Doutzen. My grandma’s name is Anique. I also lobe the name Lisanne from the list and a name not on the list- Ymre, pronounced “I’m-ree”.

Hi, I’m from the Netherlands. What a nice surprise to read this post.

Just a few remarks to fill in some of the blanks:
Azra, presumably a version of Ezra
Bente/Benthe female form of Benedict
Ceylin/Ecrin usually with families from Turkish descent
Feline is female version of Felix
Fien/Fiene short from Josephine
Floor/Floortje Dutch form of Flora (flowering)
Guusje female/short from August or Gustave
Imke, Friesian name based on Imme, meaning “great”
Jip, started out as a Friesian bos name, very famous in the Netherlands as a boy in a childrens book, meaning comes from “giving”.
Juul, short form of Julius, started as a boys name
Lente/Lenthe meaning “spring”
Lieke perhaps from Angelica
Lieve from Godelieve (God – love) meaning also “sweat”
Lotte/Lot derived from Charlotte
Madelief “daisy”
Merel defenitely not derived from Meryl. Merel is Dutch for blackbird.
Minke, Frisian name meaning “power” “strenght”
Myrthe meaning “mirtle”
Nienke/Nynke, Frisian short form of Catharine
Pien short form of Josephine
Quinty, female form of Quintus or “fifth”
Renske, Frisian name from Rein, or Laurentius or Emerentius
Sterre meaning “star”, comparable to Stella
Suus is short from Susanna
Veerle is a form of the old Germanic name Farahilde, meaning “to travel-battle”

This information comes from the Meertens Institute, who do research in the Dutch language and culture. I hope it helps!

Thank you soooooo much, Freddy! This helps enormously and we’ll add the names we don’t currently have and the information asap. Really appreciate the insights — fascinating! Any pronunciation information you have would be helpful too, if you have a chance. Thanks!

Can you or anyone else tell me anything about the name Tessely?

I’ve loved Marit, Meike and Nova for awhile now – great list!

= Azra is not a version of Ezra, it’s a Turkish girl’s name. We have a large Turkish community here.
= Tessely is NOT a common name in The Netherlands, but a made-up name. It has only been used about 10 times between 1890 and 2006. Tessa was (over)used in the 80′s and 90′s, as is Tess right now. Tessel is not used frequently and has nothing to do with Tessa/Theresa, please read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Tesselschade_Visscher
= Linda is a real 70′s name, there are no babies with that name anymore. Linde is a tree’s name (linden tree?) and not Linda-with-an-e. It’s pronounced LIN-deh, not LIN-dee.
= Feline is pronounced FAY-lee-neh, not FEE-line.
= Imre and Ymre are pronounced IM-reh, not I’M-ree.
= Cornelia is terribly old fashioned. It has never really been used as a girl’s name, although tens of thousands of women have that name in their passport. These grandma’s are called Nel, Nelleke, Corry or Lia.
= Jasmijn is a ‘white’ middle class name, Jasmine is more lower class and Yasmin(e/a) is a name almost exclusively used by Turkish and Maroccan immigrants. Apart from their origins they have nothing to do with each other.

PS Gap ships to NL. Glee is a big hit. And Lady Gaga has a big concert in Rotterdam tonight and tomorrow night. But we DO have our own set of baby names

I have a niece named “Marijke,” a beautiful dutch name that is distinct yet not too hard to pronouce: (mar-IKE-ah)

Hi Pam,

Waht I can find is that the name Tessely is originally a surname. However, in the Netherlands the name Tessa/Tess and Tessel are immensely popular. Most likely this name is chosen as a variation to these.

Tessely would be pronounced Tessuhlie traditionally, however some parents could prefer a more English pronounciation.

Tessel should be seen separately from Tessa, although it is used as an alternative to Tessa. However, Tessel is derived from Tesselschade, a name first given by an Amsterdam merchant and poet (around 1600) to his daughter as he lost a merchant ship near the Dutch island Texel (pronounced Tessel). Tesselschade meaning therefore “loss at Texel”.

Please let me know what pronounciation information you would like.

For instance, the letter e at the end of the name would be pronounced as uh (silent e), so Sterre = Sterruh and Feline = Fayleenuh.

~Tje or ~je is used as a diminutive, and pronounced as tjuh or juh (Floortjuh). There is also a diminutive ~ke (kuh).

Meike / Mijke is pronounced more or less as Maikuh (first part as in MICHael). Nienke/Nynke as Neenkuh

@Caitydaisy: we would pronounce Ymre as Imruh (first part as in IMpossible), not as I’m-ree.

Sorry Emma,

You are the expert! (Follow you all the time, love your website)

Emma, I appreciate the insights, but can you tell me why the discrepancies with the list I’m linking to, which I believed was the complete count of girls’ names used in the NL in 2009? I’m confused!

I was familiar with a few on the third list, especially those that are diminutives of longer names (like Sanne or Lotte). And Marit and Madelief — both of which I think would work well here through similarity to Maren and Madeline.

I have a recent obsession with Feline/Felina — I wonder why they’re not used in the U.S. very often. They’re quite pretty.

Also, you might want to update your information on Silke in the database. I’d heard it often in German classes — your database says it’s a variant of Silken (which you say isn’t really a name), but it makes no mention of its use in German and Dutch. According to Behind The Name, it’s actually a diminutive of Celia or Cecilia.

I went to art school with a girl named Sanne. She pronounced it Sah-nee (different from your pronunciation guide). I think she was from Sweden, if I remember correctly. The first time I met her, I thought she said her name was Sunny.

Hi,

In the Netherlands, if prononced Sah-nee, it would most likely be spelled Sannie, as ~ie would be pronounced ~ee. But I do not know about Sweden!

I’m with the others…my Dads side of the family is Dutch
so I was very excited to see this as today’s blog!

I agree with Emma that Silke is common in Germany, along with Zilke. My dad’s side of the family is German and we visit every few years.

a dutch name i think is cool that’s not listed above but on the comprehensive list is saskia. i’ve known two.

Thanks, everyone. Silke and Zilke are now in the database. Helly, I agree on Saskia — love it. Emma, I would really like to know what list I was looking at — I believed it was the Dutch equivalent of the US Social Security list of most popular names.

Veerle Castelyn was great in CATS!

My all time fav is Aya, so short and sweet. Yara is too cute as well.

Freddy… could you please tell me how to pronounce Ceylin?

Hello,

Ceylin is primarily used with Turkish parents in the Netherlands. Traditionally, in Dutch it would be pronounced See-lin (Like the Cey in Ceylon tea). However, I understand from my Turkish colleague it is pronounced Jay-lin in Turkish.

Oh, and Pam, the link you provided is the link to the total list of Dutch girls names for children born in 2009, as provided by the Dutch social security authorities.

My son is on the other , and for those who are wondering, my first name is Frederieke (female form of Frederick), pronounced in the Dutch fashion, Fredereekuh.

Saskia is more of a 70-ies name here, it is derived from the Germanic Saks, meaning “short sword / knife”. The Saxons (Saksen) were a Germanic people in Europe timing around 0 – 800 AD.

@ Freddy and @Emma, I meant to say IM-ree, my phone auto-corrected to I’m. I have heard Im-ree and Im-reh from my relatives in the Netherlands. Thanks for all the great info! I’m really looking forward to our annual family reunion in the Netherlands in April, I’m definitely going ask all my name questions in person! How would you say Ylonka? Yfke? Thanks!

Ylonka = Ee-lon-ka, this is a name derived from Ilonka – Ilona, the Hungarian name for Helena.

Yfke = Eef-kuh (the last pronounced somewhere in between keh and kuh), a Frisian girls name, from the Germanic Ijf, meaning “yew tree”.

As for Ymre, the regular pronounciation would be Im-reh/Im-ruh (the last imo more close to the pronounciation here). But a more original pronounciation could be applied.

Hi Pam, no real discrepancies as far as I see: it is *the* list to link to. The only children you won’t find in there are the parents who didn’t request “kinderbijslag” and since this allowance is not related to income, 99,9% of new parents will apply. Names like Tessely are rare though, so I’m not sure why you listed that name.

And about Cornelia: it used to be a VERY popular “official” name, but not many women have ever been called by that name. The baby-Cornelia’s are simply named after their grandmother or an aunt, and in real life they will use a completely different name. So yes, Cornelia is Dutch, but you won’t find a single baby who is actually called Cornelia.

Finally: Silke is really popular now. Zilke is plain weird. 5 million Dutch babies were born between 1983 en 2009 and *none* of them is named Zilke. The only more or less usable alternative spelling would be Sylke.

Speaking of Silke: Our American expat neighbors have a 8 month old called “Madelief Silke”. They wanted names that would remind them of their time here in Amsterdam. Love it!

To add to Emma’s story, a girl officially named Cornelia could in daily life be called (in the Netherlands, we would also refer to this as “calling name”) Lieke, Lena or Lina, or even Celia perhaps. But it is not unheard of to give the baby a totally different “calling name” which has nothing to do with the official name, so let’s say for instance officially the baby is called Cornelia, but her calling name is Fleur.

It is also possible that parents use the middle name as the “calling name”.

To add, a “calling name” in the Netherlands would not be seen the same as a nickname in the US. Most people would not know that the official name is different from the “calling name” of a particular person. I know of someone who is officially called Johannes Jacobus (and then last name), but in daily life is called Stephan (relative of mine). If someone would call out “Johannes”, he would not know that he was meant to answer…it is only the name that is used on official papers (and to honor relatives)

@pdxlibrarian: Your friend Sanne from Sweden probably had the full name Susanne or Susanna. This is a common nickname for that name there.

I have a couple more for you: I have two pen pals in the Netherlands, one named Hettie, and the other Gerry (nn for Geertje). Hettie has two daughters named Ilse and Lotta.

My Dutch mother’s name is Josephina, and she goes by Fietje.

…And my mom’s middle name is Cornelia.