View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: Bregje
Huibrecht gives Breggie in Afrikaans and should logically give Bregje in Dutch. Either way, it's a female form of Hubert. You're right: that -je is a diminutive ending. Bertie, perhaps? As for pronunciation, my Dutch is mangled but it's close to a short e as in bed, followed by that wonderful throat-clearing sound that is always said to be "like the -ch in Scottish loch", and a ye, same short e as before, and the j has an English y sound.Can't help at all with Ms Prinsloo, but a lot of white Namibians have Afrikaans surnames, of which Prinsloo is one. I'd guess bi-HAH-ti, but it is a guess and the name looks invented.
vote up1vote down

Replies

BehatiThanks for your input about Bregje.
I should really have checked this before I posted, but I found this interview with Behati Prinsloo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXaXVJDP9YE
She pronounces her name bay-AH-tee and says it means "blessed" in German. Perhaps she means it's a variant of Beate or Beatrice or somesuch. I was wondering if it was a traditional Afrikaans or Dutch form of Beate, but it seems not to be.
vote up1vote down
Nope. Definitely kre8iv, and probably a one-off. When I saw it, I wondered about the Indian ln often written as Beharrie, though there are variants; but clearly not.
vote up1vote down