Femke
PronunciationDutch: [ˈfɛmkə] ⓘ
West Frisian: [ˈfɛmkə]
GenderFeminine
Language(s)Dutch, West Frisian
Origin
Language(s)West Frisian
DerivationFem + ke
Meaninglittle Fem
Region of originOpsterland
Other names
Variant form(s)Famke, Feemke, Femkje, Femmeke, Femmetje, Femmigje, Fimke
DerivedFem, Femme

Femke (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈfɛmkə] ⓘ) is a Dutch and West Frisian feminine given name of West Frisian origin. It means 'little Fem' and is derived from the name Femme. Originally from Friesland, the name Femke started to spread beyond this region around 1960, with peaks in popularity in 1980 and 2001. It is the name of over 26,000 women in the Netherlands and Belgium and can also be found in northwest Germany.

Etymology

Femke was originally a West Frisian name from Opsterland and surroundings.[1] Femke means 'little Fem': it is a diminutive, indicated by the suffix -ke, of the name Fem which is the feminine form of the West Frisian masculine name Femme.[1][2][3][4][5] Femme is probably a children's form for a two-part Germanic name with a first part Frede from the Proto-Germanic *friþu (peace, protection) followed by a second part starting with the letter m, such as the name Fredemar meaning 'famous protector' from the Proto-Germanic *friþu and *mērija (great, famous).[4][6][7] Variants of Femke and other feminine diminutives derived from Femme are Famke, Feemke, Femkje, Femmeke, Femmetje, Femmigje, and Fimke.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

Popularity

Map of the Netherlands with the municipalities in different shades of yellow
Legend for the shades of yellow on the map
Map of the Netherlands with the relative distribution of the name Femke per municipality at the start of 2018[16]

In the Netherlands, the name Femke was given to 0–12 newborns each year from 1790 until 1960, mainly in the northern province of Friesland where the West Frisian language is spoken, when the name started to gain popularity countrywide, which peaked in 1980 with 516 newborns and again in 2001 with 752 newborns.[5][17] These peaks correspond with Dutch popularity trends of feminine given names ending in -ke, also including Maaike, Marieke, and Nienke.[18] Academic researchers have investigated the peaks for Femke, but were unable to explain what caused them.[5]

Femke has become the most-common feminine given name of West Frisian origin in the Netherlands.[1] As of 2017, Femke was the first name of 18,929 women (0.2537%), making it the 56th-most-common feminine first name, and a middle name of 1,725 women (0.0233%) in the Netherlands;[17][19] the municipality of Zeewolde had the highest percentage of women named Femke (1.0012%), followed by five municipalities in the province of Friesland with the next highest percentages (0.6025–0.8141%).[16]

In Belgium, the popularity of the name Femke also peaked in 2001 with 369 newborns.[20] As of 2022, Femke was the given name of 5,626 women (0.0948%) in Belgium, making it the 219th-most-common feminine given name in this country;[21][22] 5,575 women named Femke (0.1629%) lived in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium bordering the Netherlands, where it was the 113th-most-common feminine given name.[21][22]

In Germany, there are no official statistics about given names.[23] Based on information from over 450 German cities, a website about given names in Germany determined that Femke was most popular in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony, which is bordering the Netherlands, particularly in the region of East Frisia and the city of Papenburg.[10][23][24]

People named Femke

People with the first name Femke include:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gerrit Bloothooft & David Onland, "Regionale voornamen: Fryslân" (in Dutch), Neerlandistiek, 16 October 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2023.
  2. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Fem" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  3. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Femke" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Verklaring voornaam Femme" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Gerrit Bloothooft & Marijn Schraagen, "Name fashion dynamics and social class", Proceedings International Conference of Onomastic Sciences, 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  6. ↑ "Vrede - (toestand van rust, afwezigheid of beëindiging van oorlog)" (in Dutch), Etymologiebank.nl, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  7. ↑ "Mare - (bericht)" (in Dutch), Etymologiebank.nl, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
  8. ↑ "-tje - (verkleiningsachtervoegsel)" (in Dutch), Etymologiebank.nl, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  9. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Famke" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  10. 1 2 Annemarie Lüning, "Vorname Femke * Herkunft, Statistik und Bedeutung" (in German), Beliebte-Vornamen.de. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  11. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Femkje" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  12. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Femmeke" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  13. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Femmetje" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  14. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Femmigje" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Verklaring voornaam Fimke" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  16. 1 2 "Verspreiding voornaam Femke" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  17. 1 2 "Voornaam Femke" (in Dutch), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  18. ↑ Gerrit Bloothooft & David Onland, "Van Geesjen tot Evi: twee eeuwen suffixen in meisjesnamen" (in Dutch), Neerlandistiek, 19 December 2019. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  19. ↑ "Top eerste voornamen NL 2017" (ZIP of CSV), Nederlandse Voornamenbank, Meertens Institute. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  20. ↑ "Evolution of the first names of new born children in Belgium since 1995", Statbel. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  21. 1 2 "Prénoms des femmes en 2022" (in French), Statbel. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  22. 1 2 "Population by gender and age group - Belgium, last year", Statbel. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
  23. 1 2 "Deutsche Vornamensstatistiken" (in German), Beliebte-Vornamen.de. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  24. ↑ "Der Vorname Femke als Babyname: aktuelle Statistiken" (in German), Beliebte-Vornamen.de. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
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