Lieke
Lieke is a Dutch feminine given name. It is a diminutive of a short form of the name Angelie, Angelika, Elisabeth, Lia, or Nicolaas. The name was introduced in the 1940s, with popularity peaks in 1991 and 2008. It is the name of over 16,000 women in the Netherlands and Belgium, and can also be found in northern Germany.
Etymology
Lieke means, where the suffix -ke indicates it is a diminutive and Lie is a shortened form of the feminine names Angelie, Angelika, or Lia. As a spelling variation of the name Like, Lie can also be a diminutive short form of the feminine name Elisabeth or the masculine name Nicolaas.Popularity
In the Netherlands, Lieke was first registered as a given name in the 1940s with a total of 0–3 newborns per year until the late 1960s, when the name gradually started to gain popularity with a smaller peak of 277 newborns in 1991 and a larger peak of 719 newborns in 2008. As of 2017, there were 14,239 women with Lieke as first name and 1,200 women with Lieke as middle name in the Netherlands; the municipality of Veghel had the highest percentage of women named Lieke, followed by the municipality of Veldhoven, both in the southern province of North Brabant.In Belgium, the popularity of Lieke peaked with 67 newborns in 2008. As of 2023, there were 583 women with Lieke as first name in Belgium.
In Germany, the name is most popular in the northern states, particularly in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
People named Lieke
People with the first name Lieke include:- Lieke Klaus, Dutch BMX racer
- Lieke Klaver, Dutch track and field athlete
- Lieke van Lexmond, Dutch actress, model, presenter and singer
- Lieke Marsman, Dutch poet
- Lieke Martens, Dutch football player
- Lieke Nooijen, Dutch cyclist
- Lieke Rogge, Dutch waterpolo player
- Lieke Wevers, Dutch gymnast
- Lieke van Wijk, Dutch field hockey player