West Frisian flag; Image via Wikipedia
She’s a Top 20 pick in the Netherlands, and popular in Belgium, too.
Baby Name of the Day: Femke
Where every name has a story
Where every name has a story
West Frisian flag; Image via Wikipedia
She’s a Top 20 pick in the Netherlands, and popular in Belgium, too.
I attempted to keep this on the list for both daughters along with Silke and Imke. Only Silke made it to the final round for both. I freaking love that name.
I think you have not transliterated the pronunciation correctly. I would put the stress on the first syllable: FEM-keh
You might be right – I don’t speak Dutch. I listened to interviews with Famke Jannsen, as well as Forvo pronunciations, but there’s often a difference between native speakers and English speakers. (And there are differences in the pronunciations I heard.)
I think most Americans would try to pronounce it like Zoe or Chloe – FEM kee.
You’re right, and the ke is somewhere between keh and kuh
i love seeing some more of frisian names =D. mine (helke) is a pronunciation and spelling headache, but at least i have never ever shared it!
Yay, I said it correctly in my head! Femke is lovely, but I think it would be difficult to pull off if you were lacking sufficient Scandinavian roots, similar to using Etienne without being a bit French. I don’t think the pronunciation issues are too much either.
Femke is a Fries (Dutch) name, not Scandinavian (Denmark, Norway, Sweden)
I can deal with Famke, but there is something about Femke that looks sort of X-rated to me.
well thanks XD
We use Maike and Marike as a nickname for Maria, so obviously I love the -ke names… but they feel like nicknames to me. Friederike or Filomena nicknamed Femke, would be lovely.
(I pronounce it FEM-keh.)
I was getting Janssen mixed up with Franka Potente from Run Lola Run, an actress I wish we’d see more of! I like Silke a lot — how bout that for a NotD?
oops — I see you already did Silke!
I actually pronounced this right in my head!! Fem – kuh. It immediately reminded me of Simone Beck ( a friend of Julia Child and co-author of her famous cookbook). Her nn is Simca although she does not spelled it Simke, but I believe the two diminutives have the similar origins.
That’s a good point about Simca – wonder how she got that nickname.
I’m related to a Famke! She’s 3 and lives in the Netherlands, we have a picture but have never met her. His cousin Joon’s little girl.
Since I can say Famke properly, Femke doesn’t seem so hard to figure out!
I have a love of Silke, unusable by me so maybe I should put Femke on the extended list? It’s neat and I really like it!
I think it is cute. Kind of like naming your child an ‘ette’ name.
I really like the name on Famke Jensson so I don’t see why it wouldn’t work on s child.
I tend to pronounce this as fem-kee and like the spelling Famke better.