Even Though

Sound plays a major role for parents naming their children
Researchers have now found that male names are far more likely to contain broad, larger sounding vowels that are emphasised when spoken while female names are smaller sounding in comparison. 

This effect results in names, such as Thomas or Tom being considered more masculine and more suitable for boys, whereas names such as Emily are considered feminine and given to girls. 

Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London analysed the most popular baby names from the last decade to decode the link between the sounds in a name and the sex. 

They examined a 10-year dataset of the most popular names from England, Australia and the United States, which represents nearly a third of all births during that time period (15 million names from around 45 million births). They used recognised techniques from linguistics to determine whether names contained large or small vowel sounds. 

The data shows that larger sounding names are a popular choice for parents when it comes to naming their sons, who might associate the name size with masculine qualities. 

In mammals, including humans, deeper sounding vocalisations are typically associated with larger individuals and high frequencies with smaller ones. 

                                                              EVEN THOUGH

Names that sound ridiculous in English

I will never get used to writing an email that starts with “Dear Joke”, or “Hello Freek”, or better yet, “Taco, I would like to introduce you to Harm”! How about good ol’ Mr. Fokker. You may have seen him on the silver screen but let me tell you, the Fokkers are alive and kicking (and numerous) here in the Netherlands! Which brings me to the title and essential thesis of this entry: Dutch people like names that sound down-right ridiculous in English.

I pity the innocent Dutch child that grows up in the farming fields of Friesland, and then decides to spread their wings and start a life in an anglophone country, named: Aart van de Vaart. Yes, I cannot help and giggle like a school-girl ever time I hear that last name (FYI: Vaart  is pronounced very similar to the English word “fart”). Call me juvenile, but you cannot disagree that many a Dutch name sound simply silly in English.

And yet, we haven’t even got to the very long list of Dutch first names that start with the letter “J” and are essentially unpronounceable to anglophones. We’ve got Jaap and Jarno, Joost andJoop, and don’t forget our good friends Jurgen, Joord and Jelle (and the list goes on…I won’t even get started on names that start with “Sj”!) Yes, these names may work very well in the lowlands, but something is definitely lost in translation. Huh? Your Dutch parents named you what?!