(no subject)

[melly-issa.livejournal.com]

I love the name Anneke (On-a-kuh), but it's Dutch and we aren't.

Anything wrong with that?

For some reason I would feel really weird naming a kid Hoshi, or Keiko, or Mbeke, but am less put off by European names.

How intent on you are matching your first names culturally with your ancestry?

Comments

[pegasus2o5.livejournal.com]

As others have said, I wouldn't find it particularly odd. For reasons that possibly shouldn't be examined too closely, it doesn't seem nearly as weird for an Anglo person (assuming you are one) to use a Dutch, Italian, French, etc. name, even if they're not of that heritage at all, than to use an African or Asian one. Anneke is a lovely name, although for the sake of her convenience and sanity I would probably spell it Annika/Anneka/Anika (something with an A on the end).

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

The thing is (although the OP is not Dutch), in Dutch Annika and Anneke sound utterly different. Anneke is like On/Ahn-uh-kuh, whereas Annika is AHN-ee-kah. It's hard to convey phonetically, but -a and -e endings definitely sound different.

Having said that, Anneke could definitely be hard to pronounce in an English-speaking country, so of course it's up to you/anyone how to spell it =).