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Help[Facts] I am Dutch. (m)
in reply to a message by LMS
Djayden is indeed a Dutch variant spelling of Jayden. The name was spelled as such in order to avoid confusion over the correct pronunciation of the name. You see, the J in Dutch is basically the equivalent of the English consonant Y (as it is used in names like Yasmin, Yolanda and York). As a result, there are a fair amount of people in the Netherlands (often those of older generations who aren't that well-versed in English) who would pronounce Jayden as YAY-dən instead of the proper English pronunciation. This understandably tends to irk the child's parents, who are usually fond of the name's original English pronunciation (as otherwise they probably wouldn't have picked that name for their child) and so they try to avoid this "mangling" of the name in advance by spelling it in a more "Dutch-friendly" way. In this case, the letter 'd' was added to the name, as the English J has a vague 'd'-sound in its pronunciation (which I always think is most obvious in the name John). The resulting spelling - Djayden - made the name not only more "Dutch-friendly", but also pretty much guaranteed that the name would be pronounced in the proper English way. Kind of a win-win situation for the parents then, I guess.
This sort of thing isn't unique in the Netherlands, in that foreign names that contain sounds that are technically unknown to Dutch will get "dutchized" from time to time, depending on factors such as the parents' personal preferences (e.g. some may prefer to keep the original spelling, despite the pronunciation difficulties that that will bring) and the level of exposure that the name in question has already had in mainstream Dutch society.
As for English names starting with J-, Jayden certainly isn't the only English name where the 'J' is known to have been replaced with 'Dj' in Dutch. I have seen and/or heard of: Djim (Jim), Djimmy (Jimmy), Djon (John) and Djonny (Johnny). I am sure there are many more English names that have been "dutchized" like this.
Lastly, here are some popularity statistics and charts for Djayden in the Netherlands:
- http://www.behindthename.com/name/djayden/top (in English)
- http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/Djayden (in Dutch)
Alright, that was all - I hope you found all of this useful. :)
Proud first-time aunt to Emilia (born November 2015).
This sort of thing isn't unique in the Netherlands, in that foreign names that contain sounds that are technically unknown to Dutch will get "dutchized" from time to time, depending on factors such as the parents' personal preferences (e.g. some may prefer to keep the original spelling, despite the pronunciation difficulties that that will bring) and the level of exposure that the name in question has already had in mainstream Dutch society.
As for English names starting with J-, Jayden certainly isn't the only English name where the 'J' is known to have been replaced with 'Dj' in Dutch. I have seen and/or heard of: Djim (Jim), Djimmy (Jimmy), Djon (John) and Djonny (Johnny). I am sure there are many more English names that have been "dutchized" like this.
Lastly, here are some popularity statistics and charts for Djayden in the Netherlands:
- http://www.behindthename.com/name/djayden/top (in English)
- http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/nvb/naam/is/Djayden (in Dutch)
Alright, that was all - I hope you found all of this useful. :)
Proud first-time aunt to Emilia (born November 2015).
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Replies
The sound of the English J is actually a diphthong (dʒ) that starts with the 'd' sound.
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