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I have a summer job packing boxes with textbooks for students. We get to see the students' names too, which is a joy.
Today I worked at a school for 12-16 year olds (average) who are generally less intelligent and/or poorer than most students the same age, and come from various (non-Western) backgrounds. I came across the name "Chaimae" thrice. I think two were about the same age (15?) and one was a little older (16 or 17?).
I don't know the gender (my guess is most likely feminine) or ethnic background (possibly Moroccan, after some Googling). I can say it's probably unlikely it's derived from Chaim since Jewish people are rarely seen here (east of the Netherlands) and I believe they usually go to Jewish schools, and they're usually well off financially and maybe go to fancier schools.
My first hunch on the pronunciation was chie-MAY.
All I could find that was trustworthy is this: https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/populariteit/naam/Chaimae (Dutch)
Does anyone have any idea where it comes from?
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood - George Orwell, 1984
Today I worked at a school for 12-16 year olds (average) who are generally less intelligent and/or poorer than most students the same age, and come from various (non-Western) backgrounds. I came across the name "Chaimae" thrice. I think two were about the same age (15?) and one was a little older (16 or 17?).
I don't know the gender (my guess is most likely feminine) or ethnic background (possibly Moroccan, after some Googling). I can say it's probably unlikely it's derived from Chaim since Jewish people are rarely seen here (east of the Netherlands) and I believe they usually go to Jewish schools, and they're usually well off financially and maybe go to fancier schools.
My first hunch on the pronunciation was chie-MAY.
All I could find that was trustworthy is this: https://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/populariteit/naam/Chaimae (Dutch)
Does anyone have any idea where it comes from?
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood - George Orwell, 1984
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Replies
Thanks everyone!
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Yes, Chaimae is an Arabic girlsname often used in the Morrocan subpopulation in the Netherlands. It is pronounced SHIE-ma. (when using the Dutch way of pronouncing letters: sjaimaa). In Arabic it is written like شيما, and Shayma, Chaima and Chaimae all are ways to write this name. I live in the Netherlands myself and I mostly encounter this way of writing the name. My dictionary confimrs the meaning that thegriffin suggests: شيما (SHIE-ma) is the feminine form of اشيم (ishyam) and means 'having a black mole'.(Steingass Arabic-English dictionary)
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Chaima seems to be the French transliteration. In Arabic there are a number of variants : Shayma' or Shaima' شَيْماء, Shima' شيماء or Shyma شیما, used interchangeably (for the same person). The consensus on http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/shima.805619/ is that it from Shamah "mole" in the sense of "beauty mark".
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Yes, in France, by French-speaking North Africans, as opposed to the Shima/Shaima transliteration more used in former British administered Arab countries than in Tunisia, Algeria etc.. Whether that reflects Berber Arabic pronunciation or simply a French orthographical choice, I couldn't say.
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