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HelpHas anyone heard of the name Djenka??
I recently came across a local birth announcement and the name caught my eye. A baby girl named Djenka Anne Rebekah was born to parents Tamara & Christopher. I've never seen or heard the name before, and tried to Google more info about it but didn't find much. Has anyone ever seen the name Djenka before? If so, do you know the origin and how it's pronounced?
Jenn
Mommy to:
Henry Luis
Sienna Kate
Hugo (our puppy!)
& baby #3 due Feb 2015!
Jenn
Mommy to:
Henry Luis
Sienna Kate
Hugo (our puppy!)
& baby #3 due Feb 2015!
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Replies
I haven't heard of Djenka, but I've heard of Djenko / Jenko for a boy. Maybe a feminine version?
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I have a friend whose family is Polish, and his 100=year-old grandmother is named Jennie, but her parents and siblings called her Jinka. Maybe Jenka is a variation of that?
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I've never heard of it. I'd pronounce it JEN-kah. It reminds me of the game Jenga.
A bit of googling found Đenka which is very similar, Djenka in some spellings, and is a Russian form of Dennis. That doesn't mean that's right, of course. Just a thought.
A bit of googling found Đenka which is very similar, Djenka in some spellings, and is a Russian form of Dennis. That doesn't mean that's right, of course. Just a thought.
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I'm not sure...
Đ doesn't exist in Russian transcription. Dennis in Russian is Denis.
Common nicknames are Denya, Dena...not seen Dienka/Dyenka/Denka/Djenka and I get the impression it would be, if it were a nickname, it would be quite a 'rude' or overly informal nickname, a bit like calling Patrick 'Paddy' when nobody calls poor Patrick that and you barely know him.
Searching in Russian for any form of Djenka used as a name at all turned up nothing, so I tried Jenka / Zhenka. I don't know... could Zhenka be a weird/informal form of Zhenya?
It might be Serbian/former-Yugoslavian, or from another E. European country, but I can't find a Russian link myself...?
Đ doesn't exist in Russian transcription. Dennis in Russian is Denis.
Common nicknames are Denya, Dena...not seen Dienka/Dyenka/Denka/Djenka and I get the impression it would be, if it were a nickname, it would be quite a 'rude' or overly informal nickname, a bit like calling Patrick 'Paddy' when nobody calls poor Patrick that and you barely know him.
Searching in Russian for any form of Djenka used as a name at all turned up nothing, so I tried Jenka / Zhenka. I don't know... could Zhenka be a weird/informal form of Zhenya?
It might be Serbian/former-Yugoslavian, or from another E. European country, but I can't find a Russian link myself...?
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Đenka is used in ex-Yugoslavian counrties. Djenka would be an alternative spelling used in languages that don’t have Đ.
It’s rare and I’ve more often seen it as a nickname. There isn’t much info on it, but a couple of sources I’ve found state that it is a form of Gennadius via Genadije. Other male forms are Đeloš, Đenadija, Đenadije.
It’s rare and I’ve more often seen it as a nickname. There isn’t much info on it, but a couple of sources I’ve found state that it is a form of Gennadius via Genadije. Other male forms are Đeloš, Đenadija, Đenadije.
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When I saw it, I thought of a transliteration of Jennifer into Russian- Дженнефер. The ж could be transliterated back to the French j, making Djenka be from a name that adds the -ka to a foreign nn, making it more 'Russian', so it can now follow Russian grammatical rules. There are other transliterations. When I was in Russia, I started my name with the ж, not the Д.
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Dzh as an initial letter is a rare thing in Russian given names, though, so it would require a name to be translated into Russian and then translated back, which seems a little counter-intuitive.
Of course there are many ways to transliterate to and from Russian, but I think other E. European languages makes more sense.
I've never heard of adding -ka to Russianify nicknames, though. And since -ka nns are often pretty familiar, I would have thought that it could be a little overly-faux-chummy, a bit like using Kat'ka rather than Katya.
Of course there are many ways to transliterate to and from Russian, but I think other E. European languages makes more sense.
I've never heard of adding -ka to Russianify nicknames, though. And since -ka nns are often pretty familiar, I would have thought that it could be a little overly-faux-chummy, a bit like using Kat'ka rather than Katya.
This message was edited 1/15/2015, 3:04 PM
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I think I've only seen Dzh start foreign names in Russian- Jennifer, John, Jim, etc. to approximate our j sound.
I did take a couple of semesters of Czech in college, too, but I don't speak any other Slavic languages.
That's what I thought of when I saw the name. I'm not saying I'm right, just throwing in another hypothesis about where it's from.
I did take a couple of semesters of Czech in college, too, but I don't speak any other Slavic languages.
That's what I thought of when I saw the name. I'm not saying I'm right, just throwing in another hypothesis about where it's from.
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Haha, no, I hope it didn't seem like I was attacking you!
I was just pondering as well...
I was just pondering as well...
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The Djenkas on linkedin are mostly Serbian or Bulgarian.
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Never heard of it, but it sure looks cool.
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