Femke
Femke is a Dutch and West Frisian feminine given name of West Frisian origin. It means and is derived from the name Femme. Originally from Friesland, the name Femke started to spread beyond this region around 1960, with peaks in popularity in 1980 and 2001. It is the name of over 26,000 women in the Netherlands and Belgium and can also be found in northwest Germany.
Etymology
Femke was originally a West Frisian name from Opsterland and surroundings. Femke means : it is a diminutive, indicated by the suffix -ke, of the name Fem which is the feminine form of the West Frisian masculine name Femme. According to the Meertens Institute, Femme is probably a children's form for a two-part Germanic name with a first part Frede from the Proto-Germanic *friþu followed by a second part starting with the letter m, such as the name Fredemar meaning from the Proto-Germanic *friþu and *mērija. Variants of Femke and other feminine diminutives derived from Femme are Famke, Feemke, Femkje, Femmeke, Femmetje, Femmigje, and Fimke.Popularity
In the Netherlands, the name Femke was given to 0–12 newborns each year from 1790 until 1960, mainly in the northern province of Friesland where the West Frisian language is spoken, when the name started to gain popularity countrywide, which peaked in 1980 with 516 newborns and again in 2001 with 752 newborns. These peaks correspond with Dutch popularity trends of feminine given names ending in, also including Maaike, Marieke, and Nienke. Academic researchers have investigated the peaks for Femke, but were unable to explain what caused them.Femke has become the most-common feminine given name of West Frisian origin in the Netherlands. As of 2017, Femke was the first name of 18,929 women, making it the 56th-most-common feminine first name, and a middle name of 1,725 women in the Netherlands; the municipality of Zeewolde had the highest percentage of women named Femke, followed by five municipalities in the province of Friesland with the next highest percentages.
In Belgium, the popularity of the name Femke also peaked in 2001 with 369 newborns. As of 2022, Femke was the given name of 5,626 women in Belgium, making it the 219th-most-common feminine given name in this country; 5,575 women named Femke lived in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium bordering the Netherlands, where it was the 113th-most-common feminine given name.
In Germany, there are no official statistics about given names. Based on information from over 450 German cities, a website about given names in Germany determined that Femke was most popular in the northwestern state of Lower Saxony, which is bordering the Netherlands, particularly in the region of East Frisia and the city of Papenburg.
Notable people named Femke
Notable people with the first name Femke include:- Femke Bastiaen, Belgian footballer
- Femke Beuling, Dutch speed skater and cyclist
- Femke Boelen, Dutch rower
- Femke Bol, Dutch track and field athlete
- Femke Dekker, Dutch rower
- Femke Gerritse, Dutch cyclist
- Femke Halsema, Dutch politician
- Femke Heemskerk, Dutch swimmer
- Femke Hermans, Belgian boxer
- Femke Hiemstra, Dutch painter
- Femke Huijzer, Dutch fashion model
- Femke Kok, Dutch speed skater
- Femke Kooijman, Dutch field hockey player
- Femke Liefting, Dutch footballer
- Femke Merel van Kooten, Dutch politician
- Femke Maes, Belgian footballer
- Femke Markus, Dutch cyclist
- Femke Meines, Dutch singer and actress
- Femke Pluim, Dutch pole vaulter
- Femke Stoltenborg, Dutch volleyball player
- Femke Van den Driessche, Belgian cyclist
- Femke van Velzen, Dutch documentary filmmaker
- Femke Verschueren, Belgian singer
- Femke Verstichelen, Belgian cyclist
- Femke de Vries, Dutch cyclist
- Femke Wiersma, Dutch politician
- Femke Wolting, Dutch new media producer
- Femke Zeedijk, Dutch politician