Comments
Meaning
Usage
Pronunciation
Famous
Impression
Other
Nienke "Iana" Meijer, my favorite character from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege video game.
Thank you Ubisoft for bringing us this character.
My shiny star, may the moonlight always illuminate your path.
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Thank you Ubisoft for bringing us this character.
My shiny star, may the moonlight always illuminate your path.
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It's very beautiful. And I like it better than Katherine!
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Wow, this is a beautiful little nickname that I only just discovered today.
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A famous (in the Netherlands at least) bearer of this name is Nienke van Hichtum, a Frisian writer of children's books from the late 19th/early 20th century.
And of course this is my own name! :) Although I'm not famous myself.
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And of course this is my own name! :) Although I'm not famous myself.
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I really like this sweet little name. I definitely imagine a sweet little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes with this name! The Nie-beginning is adorable, and the -ke ending makes it extremely cute.
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Nienke is pronounced as: NEEN-kə [noted -ed]
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I think Nienke is a cute name, but I prefer it spelled 'Nynke'.
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It can be pronounced either NEEN-koo, or NEEN-kuh.
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For the longest time, I've loved the name Catherine/Katherine, and what they mean, but those names are so common. So, I've looked for many alternatives: Kaleigh, Catrin, Cato, Kathleen. But this one is by far my favorite. It's so exotic and youthful!
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Comments are left by users of this website. They are not checked for accuracy.
/'niŋ.kə/ [noted -ed]
The pronunciation that is currently listed amounts to /'nin.kə/ in IPA. It is not natively used in Friesland, but rather outside of it, by some (but certainly not all) Dutch speakers. As such, this pronunciation is basically a "dutchization".
In order to be sure, I asked native Frisians about this in /r/Frysk and they confirmed it:
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Frysk/comments/1fi6o1z/de_nk_in_friese_voornamen_als_nienkenynke/ (in Dutch; replace the 'www' with 'old' if you wish to have a more aesthetically pleasing reading experience)
If need be, you can also listen to the audio clips featured on the websites below. However, unless otherwise specified, these were made by a Dutch speaker rather than a Frisian speaker!
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nienke (in English)
• https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nienke (in Dutch)
• https://nl.forvo.com/search/Nienke/nl/ (in Dutch)
• https://youtu.be/Gy9DeJcilmE (in Dutch; the name is said at 0:00 and 2:54)
• https://youtu.be/keyV9_RQRlE (in Dutch; the name is said at 0:04 and 0:58 and 1:52)
• https://youtu.be/dV2XBuAsxZY (in Dutch and Frisian; this bearer is Frisian and the name is said at 0:19 and 0:32)
Finally, I would like to note that although Nienke is used in Friesland, it is not exactly native. The authentic Frisian form is Nynke; the spelling Nienke is a "dutchization". It was created in order to make clear how the name should be pronounced. You see, in Dutch, the vowel Y can be pronounced as /i/ and as /ɛi̯/, whereas in Frisian it is always /i/. As a result, the pronunciation of Nynke was ambiguous to Dutch speakers, and so the spelling Nienke was created in order to ensure that the name would always be pronounced the right way.