Anyone who is expecting a child often makes a list of all kinds of children’s names. Names that the new parents like or that have a special meaning. Some parents with a migration background also have an additional point of attention: does the name fit well in the Netherlands?
Noor and Noah were the most popular baby names in the Netherlands last year, according to lists from the Social Insurance Bank. Both names occur in the Netherlands and the Arab world. This also applies to other names from the top ten, such as Sara.
That has always been a hassle for people. How do you spell it, where do you find that s on the keyboard. I’ve gotten used to it
When she was pregnant with her first son, Ilyas (now 7), Akgül Yurttaş (37) thought a lot about what she wanted to name him. And that mainly had to do with her own name. The g after the k, a u with dots, an s with a comma: common in Turkey, not in the Netherlands. “That has always been a hassle for people. How do you spell it, where do you find that s on the keyboard. I have gotten used to it.” But she didn’t necessarily want to pass that on to her children. So she had long conversations about it with her husband. “We knew: it should not be too long, no double name, no dots, no s with a comma. And it had to be easy to pronounce.” That was quite a search, says Yurttaş, because it also had to be a name that suited the couple. “It was beautiful and we liked the sound of it.”
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She chose the name of her second son, Salih (now 5), in a different way. “We were in Mecca and there I had an inspiration. It is also nice that everyone pronounces this name easily.”
Her children are indeed asked less often how to pronounce their names, says Yurttaş. Although with Ilyas people sometimes say ‘Iliyas’. “He doesn’t mind that. Some people call him Ili, which is a kind of pet name. I like it too.”
Names in multiple cultures
Onomologist Gerrit Bloothooft, who is affiliated with Utrecht University and the Meertens Institute, whether people with a migration background have increasingly chosen ‘neutral’ or international names in recent years. But he does recognize the trend. For example, he also points to Nadia or Laila, names that occur in several cultures. “It’s a form of,” he says about the choice of such a name. “In which avoiding discrimination can also play a role.” Whether Noor has become more popular because many people with an Arabic background also choose the name,
According to Bloothooft, research shows that Moroccan Dutch people are less traditional when it comes to giving a name than Turkish Dutch people. The latter group is only more likely to choose an international name if it concerns a mixed relationship.
That my daughter was given a name that is not tied to one identity. I’ve thought about that
Samira Yaacoubi (35) has named her daughter (now 8) Sofia. For her, the pronunciation of her own name did not really matter. “My family all have easy names,” she says. But she did want to consciously focus on the name. “I chose Sofia because it is a Greek name that means wisdom. And it is a bit of a philosophical name and I love philosophy.” But it is also a name that can be heard worldwide. “I also thought it was important that it was a name that could be seen across all cultures. That my daughter was given a name that was not tied to one identity. I did think about that.”
Sofia is not a name that is common in Morocco, says Yaacoubi. Safya is more common. She is happy with the choice for Sofia. “You hear it everywhere, in cartoons and films. Nice and easy.”
The longer a certain group stays in the Netherlands, the more the names change, says Bloothooft. “You see that international names appear among the second generation, but especially among the third generation, the group that was born and raised in the Netherlands.” This will increase per generation, he expects. “But many generations will still remain attached to the original roots and make this clear to children through their first names.”
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