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HelpRe: Boy names on girls
in reply to a message by Pie
Only one I've ever known was a woman, probably long dead, here in South Africa but from the Afrikaans-speaking part of the population. There, the tradition of naming children after the grandparents still exists if one wants it to but used to be very strong. As a schoolgirl I had a holiday job in a women's clothing shop and someone named Andries Philippus Gerhardus Lastname used to regularly buy stockings and underwear on account. After a while I queried this - was it a sweet transvestite? - and found that this was a woman all right, and it had been Granddad Andries Philippus Gerhardus's turn to have the next baby named after him. (He, in his turn, would have been named after a grandfather, and so on and on.)
What bothered me about this was, first, that the parents caved in and second, that they didn't name their daughter Andrea Philippa Geraldine.
What bothered me about this was, first, that the parents caved in and second, that they didn't name their daughter Andrea Philippa Geraldine.
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It amazes me that she didn't change it herself, when old enough. Maybe she started enjoying the confusion! Does Andries have a unisex nn?
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Nope. I gave Andrea as a f version just because it's more familiar to English-speakers, same as Geraldine, but in Afrikaans it'd more likely be Andriesa. Andries is pronounced pretty much like Undress, but with the short i of Nicholas instead of the e. So, the default m nn is Dries, and the f would be Driesa.
She could therefore have been Andriesa Philippa Gerharda or Gerhardina or Gerhardiena. The G is "as in Scottish loch", but pronounced further back, so more guttural. The default m nn is, of all things, Hardus!
She could therefore have been Andriesa Philippa Gerharda or Gerhardina or Gerhardiena. The G is "as in Scottish loch", but pronounced further back, so more guttural. The default m nn is, of all things, Hardus!
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