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Re: Jacob & Alida
Jacob is too Old Testament to me; it's over-used where I live, but that doesn't get rid of the image of an old man in white robes and sandals, toiling up a desert dune and shaking his fist at everyone who doesn't agree with him! And I don't enjoy Jake either.Alida happens every day where I live, but only in the Afrikaans community. Here, it's pronounced ahLIdah, with the middle syllable more like the word 'lid' than 'lead'. I quite like it, but not enough to use. If it were a family name, though, I'd use it as a mn without hesitation.
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It’s a popular name in South Africa with all ages?I hadn’t thought of your pronouciation, it makes sense though! Thanks for mentioning it!
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Since democracy, naming trends have changed a lot. This is, I think, because suddenly international TV was readily available, so the names used on particularly US entertainment channels were in the public eye. But what hasn't changed is the non-availability of any naming statistics at all in a useful and accessible form. And if they were, then the typically Indo-European and Muslim names used by white and Muslim parents wouldn't show up in a meaningful way, since black parents are increasingly likely to stay with their traditional names rather than doubling them up with Western names (Sondo Muriel would be Muriel among whites and Sondo among blacks for instance - this used to be a courtesy to people who couldn't pronounce names in African languages and, mostly, didn't try. Now, reasonably enough, it's sink or swim!) and the stats that are available show only African names. With no information on fashions, trends, even meanings ... so, it's very difficult to say a sensible word about naming practices. I know of a couple of Alida people, both of whom go by Lida, in their 30s but I have very little contact with younger people since we moved last year, so I'm guessing. I haven't been in a classroom for years!
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