Re: Has anyone heard of the name Djenka??
in reply to a message by jenngrg
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.
http://www.babynames.com/namelist/9852886
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.
http://www.babynames.com/namelist/9852886
Replies
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...?
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.
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.
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
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.
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...
The Djenkas on linkedin are mostly Serbian or Bulgarian.