Silke

[Psammead]

Not a name I am going to use - it's actually my SIL's name and I always thought it was very beautiful. It's pronounced SILK-a.

Just wanted to share it and to see what other people think of it.

Yes, it is lovely - feminine. Is it Scandinavian/German?

It's German as far as I am aware. At least, my SIL is! And it is a fairly normal name for her age group.

I would expect a German/Scandinavian auntie. Which it sounds like she is?

Hmm, I would say Silk-eh not Silk-a but DH is German so it might be pronounced differently elsewhere.

Pretty, but difficult for Brits to pronounce.

MmeLindt - mine too! SILK-eh, SILK-ah, it's kind of a mix of the two, really. A bit in the middle.

Fair point though, when she visits Britain, she gets called Silky, lol.

Silke with a soft sounding 'uh' sound. It's ok; I know a couple of children called this.

Yes, my Mum calls my friend Silky. And other friend Oooty (Ute).

We avoided anything ending in a -e for that reason. Shame, cause there are some pretty German names.

It's funny, because to my German ears Silke does not sound pretty at all.

It's hard, isn't it?

We plumped for the fairly international name of Lucia (nn Lucy) and her Opa still ends up calling her something like Lootsy

I used to know a Silke when we lived in Germany (she'd be in her late 30s now) - her nickname (among her British friends) was also Silky.

emkana my SIL says this too. She was indifferent to her name until she visited the UK and everyone told her how pretty it was because of the association with the material, I suppose. Now she likes it

I think all Silkes are in their late 30s early 40s.

Their DHs are called Matthias, Thomas, Oliver and Dieter.

Their friends are Rita, Brigitte, Ute and Claudia.

And their sister's are Anja and Sabine!

Silke is a very common German name amongst 30-40 year olds.

It is indeed pronounced Silk-eh (with the eh pronouced a bit like the e in elephant, if that makes sense...)

Lovely name but, like MmeLindt says, very hard to pronounce in English.

Actually, I think belgo as the pronunciation right, a soft 'uh' describes it quite well. But then, I suppose it depends on your own accent and associated vowels!

LOL

BIL's first wife had two sisters, Anja and Sabine

Gosh! Let me guess, was his name Holger? :P

Well, maybe the e as in elephant is a little too strong, but it is definately an e sound, maybe a soft -eh sound then .

Hard to describe as that phonem/sound does not exist in English...

Yes, it's lovely. Silky the fairy from "The Magic Faraway tree" springs to mind!

Yes, mopsyflopsy I think you're right - without resorting to the phonetic alphabet, it's always going to be quite a difficult sound to describe in writing!

Close. It was Hubert

When our DC are in their 30s there will be jokes about Anna-Lena and Lena-Marie, not to mention Tim, Luca and Max.

Oh it's lovely. Is it german for Sylvia? or a german pet form of Sylvia? I think I remember reading that. Lovely.

I worked with a German doctor who had this name and I'm sure that she pronounced it as Silk-eh.

I used to work with a woman called Silke who was German too. She pronounced it almost with a Z - zilk-eh.

No, Magaly, Silke is a standalone name. As is Sylvia.

Have just looked up the statistics and between 1965 and 1975 Silke was amongst the top 20 most popular girls names.

Yes, your right, MmeLindt our children will find Anna, Maria, Max, Tom etc rather uncool .