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Help[Facts] Dutch names - for Larissa, or anyone else who knows . . .
I have family in the Netherlands, and two of my first-cousins-once-removed have names which I've heard spoken but never seen written down. The pronunciations are:
MY-ann
LYZ-beth
How would they be spelled? Would they be Marjan and Liesbeth (my guesses)?
Also, a few years ago, I met a Dutch backpacker here in Australia. The name she gave was Marjolein, but her real name was Maria Anna Josephine. She explained that Marjolein was her "called" name (the name she was called) and was her official name even though it didn't appear on her birth certificate, passport etc. Is this a common naming tradition, and can you explain it better?
Thanks!
MY-ann
LYZ-beth
How would they be spelled? Would they be Marjan and Liesbeth (my guesses)?
Also, a few years ago, I met a Dutch backpacker here in Australia. The name she gave was Marjolein, but her real name was Maria Anna Josephine. She explained that Marjolein was her "called" name (the name she was called) and was her official name even though it didn't appear on her birth certificate, passport etc. Is this a common naming tradition, and can you explain it better?
Thanks!
1
Replies
I'm from Holland, so you'd think that I should know... but I don't.
Liesbeth and Marjan are pronounced LEES-bet and MAR-yahn, and I have never heard names pronounced LYZ-beth and MY-ann.
Also, about the "called name"-thing. It is true that it it quite common in Holland (though less so than it used to be) to have a "called name" that is different from your birth names. Sometimes it doesn't even look like it at all. You often see BAs like this (especially among more "tradional" people):
Johannes Petrus Hendrikus
We call him Niels.
I am not a fan of this...
I'd like to add that most people in Holland do NOT have 3 of 4 "christian" names, most people have 2 names, just like most people in America. I believe that catholic people generally get more names than protestant or non-religious people, but I might be wrong about that. Most people in Holland are not christian at all, so it would be strange for them to have "christian" names...
Liesbeth and Marjan are pronounced LEES-bet and MAR-yahn, and I have never heard names pronounced LYZ-beth and MY-ann.
Also, about the "called name"-thing. It is true that it it quite common in Holland (though less so than it used to be) to have a "called name" that is different from your birth names. Sometimes it doesn't even look like it at all. You often see BAs like this (especially among more "tradional" people):
Johannes Petrus Hendrikus
We call him Niels.
I am not a fan of this...
I'd like to add that most people in Holland do NOT have 3 of 4 "christian" names, most people have 2 names, just like most people in America. I believe that catholic people generally get more names than protestant or non-religious people, but I might be wrong about that. Most people in Holland are not christian at all, so it would be strange for them to have "christian" names...
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Well, I'm from the Netherlands. :)
I'll tell you some more about that what that Marjolein girl has been trying to tell you.
Look at me, for example. I was born Lucia Gottfrida Maria [surname], and I'm called Lucille in every day life. Lucia Gottfrida Maria are actually my Christian names (or baptisal names; I was baptized a Roman Catholic), which also appear on my birth certificate, passports, etc.
It's kind of a tradition for everyone in the Netherlands to have Christian names (mostly 3 or 4), whether you're Catholic, protestant or reformed, and to get called by your parents and close friends something other than your Christian names (depends on the parents' choice, actually).
It's like Americans do with their children. They can give a boy Alexander James [surname] as his official name, but if they choose to call him Alex in everyday life, then he'll be an Alex for all his life (it's anyway kind of a tradition in the US to shorten full names and to call someone by their nickname for all their life), as his relatives and friends will follow his parents' example.
It's like that here, too, but the 'nickname' is more official here. When a Dutch parent fills in a form of application for when he wants to enroll his child in a school, the form will always ask what the child's name in every day life is, so that the school will call this child this name, too. It'll often appear this way:
SURNAME: Janssen
FULL NAMES: Petrus Johannes Theodorus
CALLING NAME (name in everyday life): Pieter
BIRTH DATE: February 28, 1999.
BIRTH PLACE: Amsterdam.
And so on.
I hope this kind of gives you a better understanding of the common Dutch naming system. :-)
Greetings,
Lucille
I'll tell you some more about that what that Marjolein girl has been trying to tell you.
Look at me, for example. I was born Lucia Gottfrida Maria [surname], and I'm called Lucille in every day life. Lucia Gottfrida Maria are actually my Christian names (or baptisal names; I was baptized a Roman Catholic), which also appear on my birth certificate, passports, etc.
It's kind of a tradition for everyone in the Netherlands to have Christian names (mostly 3 or 4), whether you're Catholic, protestant or reformed, and to get called by your parents and close friends something other than your Christian names (depends on the parents' choice, actually).
It's like Americans do with their children. They can give a boy Alexander James [surname] as his official name, but if they choose to call him Alex in everyday life, then he'll be an Alex for all his life (it's anyway kind of a tradition in the US to shorten full names and to call someone by their nickname for all their life), as his relatives and friends will follow his parents' example.
It's like that here, too, but the 'nickname' is more official here. When a Dutch parent fills in a form of application for when he wants to enroll his child in a school, the form will always ask what the child's name in every day life is, so that the school will call this child this name, too. It'll often appear this way:
SURNAME: Janssen
FULL NAMES: Petrus Johannes Theodorus
CALLING NAME (name in everyday life): Pieter
BIRTH DATE: February 28, 1999.
BIRTH PLACE: Amsterdam.
And so on.
I hope this kind of gives you a better understanding of the common Dutch naming system. :-)
Greetings,
Lucille
1
Well i see you got your answer already! sorry i couldn't respond any sooner, but i guess i was sleeping when you posted!
What Lucille said about our naming system is correct, i've got my own example to that:
my full name is Petronella Rosina, this name is on all my bankaccounts, passport and will be on my grave later, but my calling name is Larissa ...if you look good you can see Larissa out of Petronella Rosina.....lol. I'm not a Christian, but Petronella Rosina is my Grandmother's full name, i'm named after her......
Well guess you got all your questions answered already!
What Lucille said about our naming system is correct, i've got my own example to that:
my full name is Petronella Rosina, this name is on all my bankaccounts, passport and will be on my grave later, but my calling name is Larissa ...if you look good you can see Larissa out of Petronella Rosina.....lol. I'm not a Christian, but Petronella Rosina is my Grandmother's full name, i'm named after her......
Well guess you got all your questions answered already!
1
Well, I'm no Netherlands expert, so if I'm wrong, please don't get made at me. But I know that at least in Sweden, and I've seen it in other Scandinavian countries as well, the name pronounced LYZ-beth is spelled just plain Lisbeth. There are other spellings as well, but what I have noticed is that that spelling is often the most popular.
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