Top 10 Dutch baby names in 2007

SVB, the agency responsible for distributing child benefits in The Netherlands, publishes annual lists of the most popular Dutch baby names.

The top 10 boy names for 2007 (last year's position between brackets):

1. Sem (1)
2. Tim (6)
3. Daan (2)
4. Ruben (12)
5. Thomas (3)
6. Jesse (8)
7. Milan (5)
8. Thijs (7)
9. Lucas (9)
10. Stijn (11)

Lars (last year 4, now 11) and Sven (last year 10, now 12) dropped out of the top ten.

The top 10 girl names for 2007 (last year's position between brackets):

1. Sanne (2)
2. Lotte (9)
3. Julia (5)
4. Sophie (1)
5. Lieke (7)
6. Emma (6)
7. Anna (4)
8. Eva (10)
9. Lisa (3)
10. Fleur (8)

Links:
Kindernamen top 20 (Top 20 child names, in Dutch)
Traditional Dutch given names

Related posts:
Traditional Dutch first names for girls
Traditional Dutch first names for boys
Popular Dutch first names for girls
Popular Dutch first names for boys
The origin of your Dutch surname
The origin of your Dutch surname II
Top 10 Dutch baby names in 2006

Top 10 Dutch baby names in 2006

SVB, the agency responsible for distributing child benefits in The Netherlands, publishes annual lists of the most popular Dutch baby names. The 2006 lists have been published today.

The top 10 boy names (last year's position between brackets):

1. Sem (2)
2. Daan (1)
3. Thomas (3)
4. Lars (6)
5. Milan (8)
6. Tim (3)
7. Thijs (7)
8. Jesse (9)
9. Lucas (5)
10. Sven (16)

Bram (last year 10, now 13) dropped out of the top ten.

The top 10 girl names (last year's position between brackets):

1. Sophie (12)
2. Sanne (1)
3. Lisa (6)
4. Anna (3)
5. Julia (8)
6. Emma (2)
7. Lieke (14)
8. Fleur (13)
9. Lotte (9)
10. Eva (7)

Iris (last year 4, now 11), Anouk (last year 5, now 12) and Isa (last year 10, now 14) dropped out of the top ten.

Links:
Kindernamen top 20 (Top 20 child names, in Dutch)
Traditional Dutch given names

Related posts:
Traditional Dutch first names for girls
Traditional Dutch first names for boys
Popular Dutch first names for girls
Popular Dutch first names for boys
The origin of your Dutch surname
The origin of your Dutch surname II

Popular Dutch first names for girls

The top ten most popular names for girls born in The Netherlands in 2005: Sanne, Emma, Anna, Iris, Anouk, Lisa, Eva, Julia, Lotte, and Isa (source: SVB). Just one of these names is in the list of Traditional Dutch names for girls that I posted earlier today: Anna.

This is the last article in a series of four about Dutch given names. The four articles are:

• Traditional Dutch first names for boys
• Popular Dutch first names for boys
• Traditional Dutch first names for girls
• Popular Dutch first names for girls

Traditional Dutch first names for girls

In yersterday's post we discussed male Dutch names, so let's have a look now at female Dutch names. Popularity of names has changed drastically in the last 50 years, even more for Dutch girls names than for Dutch boys names. Especially the shorter forms that have always been popular, like Bep, Mien, Marietje or Griet, have completely disappeared. A surprising exception is Anna, a name that has maintained its position in the top ten of popular names.

Adriana. Female form of Adrianus. Short forms: Adri, Rie.

Anna. From the Hebrew Hanna. Biblical name, and the name of a Saint. Short forms: An, Annie, Ansje. English equivalents: Anna, Ann.

Catharina. Probably Greek. The name of several Saints. Short forms: Trijntje, Cato, To, Kaatje, Tinie, and many others. English equivalent: Catherine.

Cornelia. Female form of Cornelis. Short forms: Cor, Corrie, Neeltje.

Elisabeth, Elizabeth. From the Hebrew Elisjeba. Biblical name (Luke 1:5), the name of several Saints, the name of two reigning queens of England. Short forms: Lijsje, Lies, Bep.

Hendrika. Female form of Hendrik. Short forms: Riek, Rika, Hendrikje.

Johanna. Female form of Johannes. Short forms: Jo, Jannie, Jantje, Jopie. English equivalent: Jane.

Margaretha, Grietje. From the Greek word margarité, pearl. The name of several Saints. Short forms: Griet, Greet, Margreet. English equivalent: Margaret.

Maria. From the Hebrew Mirjam. Biblical name, the name of Jesus' mother, the name of several Saints, the name of several reigning English and Scottish queens. Short forms: Ria, Rie, Marie, Marietje. English equivalent: Mary. The name Maria is also popular as the second or third (but never first) given name for boys in the Catholic parts of The Netherlands.

Wilhelmina, Willemina. Female form of Willem. Name of a Dutch reigning queen. Short forms: Mien, Mina, Willie.

Related article: Dutch given names.

This is the third article in a series of four about Dutch given names. The other articles are:

• Traditional Dutch first names for boys
• Popular Dutch first names for boys
• Popular Dutch first names for girls

Popular Dutch first names for boys

The top ten most popular names for boys born in The Netherlands in 2005: Daan, Sem, Thomas, Tim, Lucas, Lars, Thijs, Milan, Jesse, and Bram (source: SVB). None of these names are in the list of Traditional Dutch names for boys that I posted earlier today.

This is the second article in a series of four about Dutch given names. The other articles are:

• Traditional Dutch first names for boys
• Traditional Dutch first names for girls
• Popular Dutch first names for girls

Traditional Dutch first names for boys

This is the first article in a series of four about Dutch given names. In the next articles, we will look at:

• Popular Dutch first names for boys
• Traditional Dutch first names for girls
• Popular Dutch first names for girls

The list of popular given names in The Netherlands has not changed much between the late middle ages and the 1960s, but changed drastically in the last 50 years. The list below lists popular given names, based on data from the 19th and early 20th century, in alphabetical order. Note that these names are the official names from birth certificates, in practice a shorter version was used (at least for the longer names).

Adrianus, Adriaan. From the Latin name Hadrianus, the name of a Roman emperor and of several popes. Short forms: Adri, Adrie, Janus. English equivalent: Adrian.

Antonius, Antonie (and several spelling variants). Latin name, and the name of several Saints. Short forms: Anton, Ton, Tony. English equivalent: Anthony.

Cornelis. From the Latin name Cornelius. Biblical name (Acts 10), and the name of a Saint. Short forms: Cees, Cor, Cnelis, Nelis.

Dirk. From the Old Germanic name Diederik. The name of several counts of Holland.

Gerardus, Gerard, Gerrit. From the Old Germanic name Gerhard. The name of several Saints. Short forms: Gert, Geert (but the full forms Gerrit and Gerard are also used as short forms).

Hendrik. Old Germanic name. Name of a Saint, and of several German emperors and French, English and Castilian kings. Short form: Henk. English equivalent: Henry.

Jacobus, Jacob. From the Hebrew ja'aqob. Biblical name, and the name of several Saints, and of kings of Aragon (Jaime) and England. Short form: Jaap. English equivalent: James.

Johannes, Jan. By far the most common male first names in The Netherlands. From the Hebrew Johanan. Biblical name, the name of many Saints, the name of an English king. Short forms: Jan, Hans, Johan. English equivalent: John. A 1961 investigation shows that a staggering 11% of the male population used the first name Jan (source: Meertens Institute).

Pieter, Petrus. From the Greek word petra, rock. The name of the main apostle (given to him by Jesus in Matt.16:18). Short form: Piet. English equivalent: Peter.

Willem, Wilhelmus. From the Old Germanic name Wilhelm. The name of several Saints, the name of most Dutch stadtholders, the name of all Dutch kings, and the name of several English kings. Short form: Wim. English equivalent: William.

Related article: Dutch given names.

The origin of your Dutch surname II

In an earlier post I told you about the Meertens Institute, where you can find out more about the origin of your Dutch surname.

I did some research on their website on the five most common Dutch surnames: De Jong, De Vries, Jansen, Van den Berg, and Bakker.

With 55256 people in the 1947 census, De Jong is by far the most common name in The Netherlands. De Jong is Dutch for the young, or the younger, and was often tagged to someone's name to differentiate from an older person with the same name.

De Vries (49298 people in the 1947 census) means the Frisian - someone from Friesland (Frisia). Friesland - now a province in the north-west of The Netherlands - was once the name of almost the entire Dutch coastal area, and it stretched well into what is now Germany.

Jansen (49213 people in the 1947 census) is a patronymic name, from the first name Jan. Jan (short for Johannes, Dutch for John) is the most common first name in The Netherlands. In many areas of The Netherlands it was (and occasionally still is) common to use a patronymic in addition to (or instead of) a surname. Pieter, son of Jan, will become Pieter Jansz (short for Pieter, Jans zoon, or Peter, John's son), or Pieter Jans, or Pieter Jansen (both forms are possessive, meaning Peter John's, or Peter of John).

Van den Berg (37678 people in the 1947 census, including Van der Berg and Van de Berg) means from the mountain. It is a toponymic name, probably used for people living on a relatively elevated part of their region.

Bakker (37483 people in the 1947 census) means baker, usually a baker of bread. A village baker called Jan Jansen may, even today, be known as Jan de bakker (John the baker), while his son Pieter may be known as Piet van de bakker (Pete of the baker).

The origin of your Dutch surname

The Meertens Institute is an institute that researches Dutch language and culture. They are also doing research into the origins and development of surnames in the Netherlands, and have published a large database of surnames and their meanings and origins.

If you want to know the meaning of your Dutch surname, have a look in their Database of Surnames. Click the British flag to get the search interface in English. The search result will still contain some data in Dutch, though.

The search results may contain an explication of the origin of the name, bibliographical references, specific name characteristics and components, lists of name variations and names with similar meaning, and the distribution of the name over The Netherlands in 1947.

Same-Named Siblings

In his Genealogue blog, Mr. Dunham comments on the "ridiculous" case (not his qualification, I hasten to add) of two Jamaican siblings having the same Christian names and surnames. Maybe we Dutch are a ridiculous people, but having same-named siblings was quite common over here. Not only were the names of deceased children reused, but children that survived into adulthood may well have shared the same name. Children are traditionally named after relatives. The first two boys will have their grandfathers' names, the first two girls their grandmothers', other children will be named after parents, aunts, uncles, and great-grandparents. If both grandmothers were named Johanna, there may well have been two daughters named Johanna. In practice, same-named children will have had different nicknames that they used instead of their given names. I am not aware of any currently living siblings with the same name, and also the habit of reusing names of deceased children has almost completely disappeared.