Dutch girl names get a lot done with very few letters. Most begin as a longer formal name and end up as the everyday one, so Elisabeth becomes Ilse, Josefien becomes Fien, and Charlotte becomes Lotte.
The clipped versions now win outright. Noor, a Dutch short form of Eleonora, was given to 705 baby girls in the Netherlands in 2025 and pushed Emma off the top spot, according to the Dutch Social Insurance Bank (1).
Below are 100 Dutch names for girls, each with its origin, meaning, a plain pronunciation guide, and where it landed on the Dutch charts for 2025.
100 Beautiful Dutch Names for Girls
The list runs alphabetically from Adrie to Zoe, and each entry covers the name’s origin, meaning, pronunciation and how common it is in the Netherlands today.
Adrie
Adrie is the Dutch clipped form of Adriana, which traces back to the Roman family name Hadrianus, borne by the emperor Hadrian and meaning from Hadria. It is a genuinely short girl name, two syllables and no silent letters, and the secondary reading of dark comes from the sense of an olive or bronze complexion rather than anything gloomy. Adrie also works as a boy’s name in the Netherlands, so expect it to read as unisex there and firmly feminine elsewhere.
- Origin: Latin, Dutch
- Meaning: From the Adriatic, dark
- Pronunciation: AH-dree
- Variations: Adriana, Adriane, Adrienne, Adreanna
- Popularity: Adrie is used across Dutch and Afrikaans families but sits well outside the Dutch top 200 for 2025, so it stays a heritage pick rather than a trend.
Aleid
Aleid is the Dutch short form of Adelheid, built from the Old German elements adal, noble, and heid, kind or sort. That makes it a sibling of Adelaide and Alida rather than a name with its own separate story. Medieval Holland was full of Aleids, including countesses and abbesses, which is why the name still carries a faintly aristocratic weight. Said aloud it lands softly, with the final consonant closer to a t than a d. Aleida and Aleide are the fuller Dutch spellings if the clipped version feels too abrupt.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Noble kind
- Pronunciation: ah-LAYT
- Variations: Aleida, Aleide, Adelheid, Aleit
- Popularity: Aleid is rare in modern registrations and does not appear on the Dutch top 200 for 2025, though it survives widely as a family name passed down a generation.
Aleta
Aleta is the shorter spelling of Aletta, a Dutch diminutive of Adelheid, so its meaning sits in the same noble family as Aleid and Adelaide. Older name lists sometimes tie it to a Greek goddess of truth, but no such figure is attested and the Dutch line is the documented one. The name’s real weight comes from Aletta Jacobs, who fought her way into Groningen’s medical school in 1871 and spent her career on women’s health and suffrage. Three open vowels give it an unhurried, almost sung quality. Aleta pairs neatly with a single-syllable middle name.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Noble kind
- Pronunciation: ah-LAY-tah
- Variations: Aletta, Alida, Aleida
- Namesakes: Aletta Jacobs, the first woman to complete a university degree and qualify as a physician in the Netherlands.
- Popularity: Aleta peaked in the mid twentieth century and is now uncommon; it is absent from the Dutch top 200 for 2025, which makes it a quiet, unrepeated choice in a classroom.
Amalia
Amalia is a short form of the old Germanic names built on the element amal, meaning unceasing, vigorous or brave. Plenty of name lists translate it as work, which is a misreading of that element and undersells the name badly. Its royal run is real: Anna Amalia of Brunswick made eighteenth-century Weimar a center of the arts, and the Netherlands’ current heir carries the name today. Amalia stretches to four syllables in Dutch, which gives it a formal register that Amelia has largely lost. Amalie is the German spelling and Amelia the English one, so a Dutch Amalia will meet both abroad.
- Origin: Germanic
- Meaning: Unceasing, vigorous, brave
- Pronunciation: ah-MAH-lee-yah
- Variations: Amalie, Amelia, Amalya
- Namesakes: Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, heir to the Dutch throne.
- Popularity: Amalia sits around No. 330 on the Dutch list for 2025, so it is familiar without being crowded.
Angelien
Angelien is the Dutch form of Angeline, and behind it stands the Greek angelos, a messenger. The angel sense arrived later, once Jewish and Christian writers used the same word for a divine envoy. The Dutch spelling swaps the French nasal ending for a clean -ien, which is the same move that produced Carolien and Evelien. It is a long name for a small person, so most Angeliens end up as Lien or Angie by school age.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Messenger, angel
- Pronunciation: ahn-khuh-LEEN
- Variations: Angela, Angelina, Angelique, Angeline
- Popularity: Angelien belongs to the generation of Dutch and Afrikaans women born mid-century; it no longer registers on the Dutch top 200, unlike Angelique, which held on far longer.
Anika
Anika is a diminutive of Anna, which is the Greek and Latin form of the Hebrew Hannah and means favor or grace. The k gives it a firmer edge than Anna, and the ending keeps it warm rather than formal. It travels unusually well: the same three syllables work in Dutch, German, Swedish, Hindi and English with barely a shift in stress. Sound-alikes are worth knowing about, since Annika and Anneke will follow her around. The stress stays on the first syllable in Dutch, which is what separates AH-nee-kah from the English uh-NEE-kuh.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Favor, grace
- Pronunciation: AH-nee-kah
- Variations: Annika, Anneke, Anke, Anki, Ann
- Namesakes: Anika, born Annika Henderson, a British-German singer and poet.
- Popularity: Anika is used across Dutch, German and Nordic families and is common enough to be recognized anywhere, though the Dutch charts now favor the plainer Anna and Anne.
Anki
Anki is a compact pet form in the Anna family, so the grace sense of Hannah carries straight through. Older lists try to build a meaning by splitting the name into Sumerian an and ki, sky and earth, but that is a coincidence of spelling and not an etymology. Two syllables, four letters, and no ambiguity about how to say it, and it is the sort of name that survives as a nickname long after the passport version has been forgotten.
- Origin: Dutch, Swedish
- Meaning: Favor, grace
- Pronunciation: AHN-kee
- Variations: Anke, Anneke, Annika
- Popularity: Anki is rare in the Netherlands today and does not chart in the 2025 registrations; it is better known in Sweden as a blend of Ann and Kristina.
Anneliese
Anneliese welds two names together: Anne, from Hebrew Hannah and meaning favor or grace, and Liese, a short form of Elisabeth meaning my God is an oath. Compound names like this were a German and Dutch specialty in the early twentieth century, and they gave parents two family honors in one christening. Anne Frank’s given name was Annelies Marie, which is the Dutch spelling of exactly this pairing. Four syllables is a lot to carry daily, so Annie, Lies and Liesje all sit ready to hand.
- Origin: Dutch, German
- Meaning: Grace, my God is an oath
- Pronunciation: AH-nuh-lee-suh
- Variations: Annelies, Annalise, Annelie
- Namesakes: Anneliese Louise van der Pol, a Dutch-American actress and singer.
- Popularity: Anneliese is a mid-century classic rather than a current favorite; the shorter Annelies still turns up in Dutch families, while English speakers mostly meet the name as Annalise.
Annemie
Annemie is a Dutch and Flemish blend of Anne and Mie, the short form of Maria, so it stacks grace on top of one of the oldest names in Europe. Belgium took to it more warmly than the Netherlands did, and it still reads as slightly Flemish to a Dutch ear, and the ending lands on a bright ee, which keeps a fairly serious pair of source names sounding cheerful. If the full version feels dated, Mie on its own has quietly become fashionable again.
- Origin: Dutch, Flemish
- Meaning: Grace, drop of the sea
- Pronunciation: AH-nuh-mee
- Variations: Annemieke, Annemarie, Annemiek
- Popularity: Annemie is heard more often in Flanders than in the Netherlands and does not appear on the Dutch top 200 for 2025.
Anouk
Anouk is a Dutch and French diminutive of Anna, which explains why a name that sounds invented has a completely ordinary root. It reached most of Europe through Anouk Aimee, whose 1966 film A Man and a Woman put the name in front of an audience that had never met it. In the Netherlands it also belongs to one of the country’s biggest rock voices. The final k stops it from going soft, which is rare in a name this vowel-heavy.
- Origin: Dutch, French, Hebrew
- Meaning: Favor, grace
- Pronunciation: ah-NOOK
- Variations: Anouck, Anoek, Anna
- Namesakes: Anouk Aimee, the French actress born Nicole Dreyfus; Anouk, the Dutch rock singer born Anouk Teeuwe.
- Popularity: Anouk had a long run in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Switzerland and is still widely used, though it has drifted below the Dutch top 200 as shorter forms took over.
Arabella
Arabella first appears in medieval Scotland, probably as a variant of Annabel, though a derivation from the Latin orabilis, yielding to prayer, is also suggested. Later spellings pulled toward bella, which is why so many lists now gloss it as beautiful, a meaning it acquired rather than started with. It sits close to the Italian Isabella without being a variant of it. Four syllables gives you room to breathe, and Bella, Bell and Ara are all waiting inside. See our fuller entry on Arabella for its full history.
- Origin: Latin, Scottish
- Meaning: Yielding to prayer
- Pronunciation: ah-ruh-BEL-ah
- Variations: Arabel, Arbella, Orabella
- Namesakes: Arabella Mansfield, the first woman admitted to the bar in the United States.
- Popularity: Arabella is a British and American favorite more than a Dutch one, and it is absent from the 2025 Dutch list; Dutch parents reach for Isabella instead.
Aya
Aya is three names that happen to share a spelling. In Arabic it is a sign or a verse of the Quran, in Hebrew it names a swift-flying bird, and in Japanese it is written with characters for color or design. That overlap is why it turns up on so many national charts at once without belonging to any single tradition. Two syllables, one sound per letter, and no spelling battles in any of those languages. For a Dutch family looking for a name that works in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Cairo alike, this is close to the shortest route.
- Origin: Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese
- Meaning: Sign, verse, colorful, swift bird
- Pronunciation: AH-yah
- Variations: Aja, Ayah
- Namesakes: Aya Korem, an Israeli singer-songwriter.
- Popularity: Aya ranked No. 89 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, carried largely by Dutch families of Arabic and Japanese heritage.
Beatrix
Beatrix comes from Viatrix, the feminine of the Latin Viator, meaning voyager or traveler. The spelling shifted early under the pull of beatus, blessed, which is how the happiness reading attached itself and stuck. For Dutch families the name is inseparable from the queen who reigned for 33 years and then handed the throne to her son. The x ending is the whole appeal, giving a long formal name an unexpectedly sharp finish. Trix as a nickname is a small gift.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Voyager, traveler
- Pronunciation: bay-ah-TRIKS
- Variations: Beatrice, Beatriz, Bea, Trix
- Namesakes: Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013; Beatrix Potter, the English author and illustrator.
- Popularity: Beatrix is a heritage name in the Netherlands rather than a current chart name; it does not appear in the 2025 top 200, though Bea and Trix are quietly fashionable again.
Bente
Bente began as the Danish feminine form of Benedict, from the Latin benedictus, blessed, and crossed into Dutch use in the second half of the twentieth century. The Netherlands promptly produced its own spelling, Benthe, which now charts alongside it. Both are treated as unisex names in Scandinavia but read almost entirely female in Dutch. The stress falls on the first syllable, so it is BEN-tuh rather than ben-TAY.
- Origin: Danish, Latin
- Meaning: Blessed
- Pronunciation: BEN-tuh
- Variations: Benthe, Benta, Benedicte
- Popularity: Bente ranked No. 103 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the national list, with the variant spelling Benthe also in regular use.
Betje
Betje is Elisabeth cut down to its middle and given the Dutch -je ending, a suffix that adds affection without changing the meaning. Underneath sits the Hebrew Elisheva, my God is an oath, one of the most widely reworked names in Europe. Its literary claim is strong: Betje Wolff helped invent the Dutch novel in the 1780s and did it in a woman’s voice. Relatives of the name have spread everywhere, so Elise and Lisa are cousins rather than strangers. Bets and Betsy are the natural short forms, and both are Dutch rather than borrowed.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: My God is an oath
- Pronunciation: BET-yuh
- Variations: Bets, Betsy, Betty, Elisabeth
- Namesakes: Betje Wolff, the eighteenth-century Dutch novelist who co-wrote Sara Burgerhart, the first Dutch epistolary novel.
- Popularity: Betje is a historical name in the Netherlands now and is missing from the 2025 registrations, though it is the kind of great-grandmother name that tends to come back.
Bibi
Bibi is a Persian and Urdu honorific for a woman of standing, used across South and Central Asia much as madam once was in English. Dutch families adopted it as a stand-alone first name, helped along by its resemblance to every doubled baby nickname ever invented. Repeated syllables usually make a name sound very young, but the title behind it pulls in the opposite direction, and it has one plain advantage: nobody in any language needs it spelled twice.
- Origin: Persian
- Meaning: Lady of the house
- Pronunciation: BEE-bee
- Variations: Bibbi, Bebe
- Popularity: Bibi ranked No. 192 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, a genuine climb for a name most Dutch parents met as a nickname.
Brandy
The word brandy is Dutch: brandewijn, burnt wine, describes what distilling does to the original liquid, and seventeenth-century Dutch traders carried both the drink and the word to England, where it lost its second half. As a girl’s name it belongs to English-speaking countries rather than the Netherlands, and it is sometimes read as a feminine Brandon instead. The Dutch route is the more interesting one, and it makes this the only name on the list that started life in a still.
- Origin: Dutch, English
- Meaning: Burnt wine
- Pronunciation: BRAN-dee
- Variations: Brandi, Brandie
- Namesakes: Brandy Norwood, the American singer and actress; Brandy Ledford, an American actress.
- Popularity: Brandy is an American name of the 1970s and 1980s in practice, and it does not chart in the Netherlands for 2025 despite the Dutch word behind it.
Brechtje
Brechtje is the feminine of Brecht, a short form of the old Germanic names built on beraht, bright, the same element inside Albert and Bertha. The -je ending is a Dutch diminutive and gives the name its gentle finish. It is also close to unpronounceable outside the Dutch-speaking world, since that middle cht is a sound English does not have. Inside the Netherlands, though, it is instantly readable and slightly bookish, which suits it. Bregje is the smoother spelling for anyone who finds that middle cluster too much.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Bright
- Pronunciation: BREKH-yuh
- Variations: Brecht, Brechje, Bregje
- Popularity: Brechtje is a distinctly Dutch name with little use elsewhere, and it sits outside the 2025 top 200, which is part of its appeal for parents who want something local and unrepeated.
Britt
Britt is the Scandinavian short form of Birgitta, which traces to the Irish Brighid and the sense of exalted or high one. It has nothing to do with Brittany, a mix-up so common that it is worth heading off early. One clipped syllable makes it unusually easy for English speakers, which is more than can be said for most names on this list. Britt also refuses to date itself in either direction, never quite vintage and never quite new. Britta and Birgitta are both available if a longer formal version is wanted on the certificate.
- Origin: Old Norse, Irish
- Meaning: Exalted one
- Pronunciation: BRIT
- Variations: Brit, Britta, Birgitta
- Popularity: Britt had a strong Dutch run in the 2000s and 2010s but has since slipped out of the top 200, so it now reads as a millennial rather than a newborn name.
Cato
Dutch Cato is a diminutive of Catharina, so its everyday sense sits with the pure reading long attached to Katherine. The Roman cognomen Cato is a separate word, from Latin catus, shrewd or wise, and it belonged to two famously severe statesmen. Dutch parents use the name without any of that baggage, and it has been climbing steadily. The stress sits on the first syllable and the final o stays short, which is what separates KAH-toh from the English KAY-toh. Kato is the phonetic spelling and turns up as well, so the choice is worth making deliberately.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Pure, wise
- Pronunciation: KAH-toh
- Variations: Kato, Catharina, Cathy
- Popularity: Cato ranked No. 62 in the Netherlands in 2025 according to national registration figures, which puts a name most English speakers read as Roman and male firmly among Dutch girls.
Cornelia
Cornelia is the feminine of the Roman family name Cornelius, probably from cornu, horn. Rome treated the original Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, as the pattern of a virtuous woman, and that reputation followed the name for two thousand years. In the Netherlands it was a workhorse name for centuries, which is why so many Dutch families have a Cornelia two or three generations back. It is long, and the Dutch have solved that with an unusually deep bench of nicknames, from Corrie to Neeltje. The full version reads as genuinely elegant today precisely because so few children carry it.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Horn
- Pronunciation: kor-NAY-lee-yah
- Variations: Corrie, Cor, Neeltje, Nelly, Cornelie
- Popularity: Cornelia sits around No. 272 on the Dutch list for 2025, the SVB’s figures show, well down from its long reign as one of the most common names in the country.
Dael
Dael follows Dutch dal, a valley, and belongs with the small group of Dutch names taken straight from the shape of the land, which makes it a fair choice for nature lovers, since a valley in Dutch usage carries the sense of shelter rather than mere geography. It is a single syllable with a long open vowel, which is unusual on a list dominated by two-syllable diminutives. Expect to spell it out, and expect it to be read as Dale by anyone who has not seen it written.
- Origin: Dutch, English
- Meaning: Valley
- Pronunciation: DAHL
- Variations: Dale, Daal
- Popularity: Dael is very rare as a girl’s name and does not appear in the Dutch 2025 registrations, while the English Dale remains far more common and mostly male.
Daffodil
Daffodil came into English from the Greek asphodel by way of Dutch, where de affodil handed the flower a d it never originally had. The Dutch connection is the bulb trade rather than the naming tradition, and the bulb fields around Lisse are still where most of Europe’s daffodils come from. In flower symbolism the daffodil stands for rebirth and the turn of the season, which explains its association with early sunlight. As a name it is bold, English-sounding and very much a statement.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Asphodel
- Pronunciation: DAF-oh-dil
- Variations: Daffy, Affodil
- Popularity: Daffodil is essentially unused as a legal first name in the Netherlands and has no place on the 2025 list; the Dutch flower names that do get registered are Fleur, Roos and Madelief.
Danique
Danique is a Dutch feminine form of Daniel, from the Hebrew Daniyyel, God is my judge, with an -ique ending borrowed from French that gives a Hebrew name a Parisian finish. Some lists gloss it as morning star, a meaning that belongs to no part of the name’s history. It is one of very few names on this list that can be dated almost to the decade it appeared, which is either a drawback or a period charm depending on your taste.
- Origin: Dutch, French
- Meaning: God is my judge
- Pronunciation: dah-NEEK
- Variations: Daniek, Danielle, Daniela
- Popularity: Danique was a Dutch invention of the 1990s and had a strong run then; it has since fallen out of the top 200, so it reads as a name for someone in her thirties.
Demi
Demi began as a short form of Demetria, the feminine of Demetrios, meaning devoted to Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and harvest. The French word demi, half, is a separate word that happens to match, and it is the reason the name occasionally gets read as diminishing. In the Netherlands the name arrived via Hollywood and then found a home of its own, with cyclist Demi Vollering giving it a Dutch face. Short, bright and already familiar in English, it is one of the easier picks here for a bilingual family.
- Origin: Greek, French
- Meaning: Devoted to Demeter, half
- Pronunciation: DEH-mee
- Variations: Demy, Demetria
- Namesakes: Demi Moore, the American actress; Demi Vollering, the Dutch professional cyclist and Tour de France Femmes winner.
- Popularity: Demi ranked No. 184 in the Netherlands in 2025 per national registration figures, holding on well after its celebrity peak.
Doortje
Doortje is Dorothea trimmed to its first syllable and given the Dutch diminutive ending, so the meaning stays gift of God. Dorothea and Theodora are the same two Greek words in opposite order, which is a small piece of trivia worth having. The name reads as thoroughly old-fashioned inside the Netherlands and as completely unfamiliar outside it, and if the full ending feels like too much it shortens naturally to Door or Dora.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Gift of God
- Pronunciation: DOOR-tyuh
- Variations: Dora, Door, Dorothea, Dorothy
- Popularity: Doortje is a grandmother name in the Netherlands now and absent from the 2025 top 200, though Dutch parents have started reviving this whole family of -tje names.
Doutzen
Doutzen is a Frisian name, formed as a feminine counterpart to Douwe, and its meaning is genuinely disputed. Some sources trace it to Old Frisian dwan, to do, and others to a dove; neither reading is settled enough to state as fact. What is not in doubt is the name’s modern reach, which arrived with Doutzen Kroes in the mid 2000s and turned a local Frisian name into an international one. Friesland has its own official language and its own name stock, and this is one of the clearest examples of it. Expect to spell it and to correct DOOT-zen to DOWT-sen more than once.
- Origin: Frisian
- Meaning: Debated; a feminine form of Douwe
- Pronunciation: DOWT-sen
- Variations: Doutsen, Dautsen
- Namesakes: Doutzen Kroes, the Frisian model and Dutch UN goodwill ambassador.
- Popularity: Doutzen rose sharply in Friesland after 2007 and remains a regional favorite, but it stays outside the national top 200 for 2025.
Dunya
Dunya is the Arabic word for the world, specifically this world as opposed to the next, which gives it a quietly philosophical weight, while Russian has its own Dunya, an affectionate form of Yevdokiya; the two arrive in Dutch usage from completely different directions. Dostoevsky readers will know the Russian one from Crime and Punishment. The spelling with a j, Dunja, is the more common Dutch form and is worth deciding on early.
- Origin: Arabic, Russian
- Meaning: The world
- Pronunciation: DOON-yah
- Variations: Dunia, Dunja, Dounia
- Popularity: Dunya is used steadily by Dutch families with Arabic, Balkan or Russian roots but does not reach the 2025 top 200.
Eleonora
Eleonora descends from the Occitan Alienor by way of Old French, and the honest position is that nobody knows what it originally meant. The popular gloss God is my light comes from confusion with the unrelated Arabic Nur and should be set aside. Eleanor of Aquitaine carried the name across twelfth-century Europe as queen of both France and England, which is why every language has a version of it. In the Netherlands its afterlife is remarkable: the formal name has all but vanished while Noor sits at the top of the charts. Nicknames run from Noor and Noortje to El, Nora and Lore.
- Origin: Occitan, Latin
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: ay-lay-oh-NOR-ah
- Variations: Eleanor, Eleonore, Noor, Noortje, Nora
- Namesakes: Eleonora Duse, the Italian actress; Eleonora Wexler, an Argentine actress.
- Popularity: Eleonora rarely gets registered in full in the Netherlands, but its short forms dominate: Noor was the country’s No. 1 girls’ name in 2025 and Nora came third.
Eline
Eline is the Dutch and Norwegian reworking of Helen, whose Greek root has long been tied to helene, torch, and to the shining light sense that follows from it. Its Dutch fame is literary rather than royal: Louis Couperus made Eline Vere the title character of the novel that opened modern Dutch fiction. The name has held a place on the charts for decades without ever spiking, which usually signals a name parents choose deliberately rather than catch. Three light syllables and no hard consonants make it easy on a small mouth.
- Origin: Dutch, Norwegian
- Meaning: Torch, shining light
- Pronunciation: ay-LEE-nuh
- Variations: Eliane, Elien, Elina, Helena
- Namesakes: Eline Vere, the heroine of Louis Couperus’s 1889 novel, one of the best-known characters in Dutch literature.
- Popularity: Eline ranked No. 129 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, a long and unusually stable run for a name with no celebrity behind it.
Elsje
Elsje is Elisabeth reduced to Els and softened with the Dutch -je, so the Hebrew sense of my God is an oath survives intact, and the sje spelling is pronounced like the English sh, which catches most non-Dutch readers out. It is a good example of how the Dutch turn a long biblical name into something that fits comfortably in a kitchen. Anyone expecting a link to Frozen will be disappointed: Elsa came through Germany, not Holland.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: My God is an oath
- Pronunciation: EL-shuh
- Variations: Els, Elsa, Elisabeth, Elske
- Namesakes: Elsje de Wijn, a Dutch actress.
- Popularity: Elsje belongs to the older generation in the Netherlands and does not chart in 2025, though the bare Els is still current and Elsa arrived from an entirely different direction.
Esmee
Esmee is the feminine of Esme, from Old French esmer, to esteem or to love, which puts it among the small group of European names built on a verb rather than a noun. It is not a short form of Esmeralda, an unrelated Spanish name meaning emerald. The Netherlands adopted the double-e spelling and largely dropped the accent, which is why Dutch Esmee and British Esmé look different on paper and sound the same. Two syllables with the stress up front, and the ending is a clean may. Esme without the second e is the British form and will be read as one syllable by some English speakers.
- Origin: French, Latin
- Meaning: Esteemed, loved
- Pronunciation: ES-may
- Variations: Esme, Esmée, Esmay
- Popularity: Esmee ranked No. 94 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the national list, after a decade in the Dutch top 30 in the 2000s.
Evi
Evi is the Dutch and German diminutive of Eva, and behind that stands the Hebrew Chawwah, tied to the verb chayah, to live or to breathe. Two syllables and three letters make it about as economical as a name gets while staying unmistakably feminine. Dutch parents have kept it near the top of the charts for twenty years, which is a long time for a name this short. The rival spellings are the only real decision: Evi, Evy and Evie all chart, and only one of them will be on the birth certificate.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: To live, breathe
- Pronunciation: AY-vee
- Variations: Eve, Eva, Evy, Evie
- Namesakes: Evi Hanssen, a Flemish presenter and singer.
- Popularity: Evi ranked No. 25 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, comfortably inside the top 30 and used far more often than the spelling Evy.
Famke
Famke is a variant of Femke, a diminutive of Femme, and it happens to coincide exactly with the Frisian word famke, meaning girl. That coincidence is the whole charm of the name and also the reason it feels so grounded in Friesland. Famke Janssen carried it into English-speaking cinema, where it is one of the few Dutch girls’ names anyone can recognise on sight. The -ke ending is Frisian and Low German rather than standard Dutch, and it is what separates this family of names from the -je group. Fam works as a short form, and Famkje is the fuller Frisian version.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Girl
- Pronunciation: FAHM-kuh
- Variations: Femke, Fam, Famkje
- Namesakes: Famke Janssen, the Dutch actress.
- Popularity: Famke stays outside the Dutch top 200 for 2025 while its sibling Femke ranked No. 173 according to national registration figures, so the two are far from interchangeable in practice.
Fay
Fay comes from the Middle English faie, a fairy, which reached English through Old French from Latin fata, the fates. The Arthurian figure most often attached to it is Morgan le Fay, a sorceress rather than a sorcerer, and her byname is that same word. Dutch parents took to it in the 2000s because it is short, soft and needs no translation. One syllable this light works best against a longer surname.
- Origin: English, Old French
- Meaning: Fairy
- Pronunciation: FAY
- Variations: Faye, Fae, Fee
- Namesakes: Fay Wray, the Canadian-American actress who starred in the 1933 King Kong.
- Popularity: Fay ranked No. 178 in the Netherlands in 2025, the SVB’s figures show, with the spelling Faye higher still at No. 138.
Felicia
Felicia is the feminine of the Roman name Felicius, itself a derivative of Felix, meaning lucky or successful. It is often traced to Felicitas, the Roman goddess of good fortune, but the line actually runs through Felix, and the distinction matters for anyone who cares about accuracy. The name has been in continuous use since the Middle Ages, which is rarer than it sounds. Four syllables ending in a bright open vowel give it a lift that Felicity, with its clipped finish, does not have.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Lucky, successful
- Pronunciation: fuh-LEE-see-ah
- Variations: Felicity, Felice, Felicitas
- Popularity: Felicia is used across Europe, particularly in Sweden and Italy, but does not appear in the Dutch top 200 for 2025.
Fenna
Fenna is the feminine of Fen, a Frisian short form of the old Germanic names built on fridu, peace, so it belongs with Frederika rather than standing alone. Its heartland is the north of the Netherlands, where Frisian is a working language and its own name stock feeds the national charts. Two syllables, a double consonant and a firm first stress give it a solidity that most short girls’ names lack. It has begun appearing in English-speaking countries, where it reads as new rather than borrowed. Fen, the name Fenna is built on, is used on its own and reads as unisex.
- Origin: Frisian, Dutch
- Meaning: Peace
- Pronunciation: FEN-ah
- Variations: Fenne, Fen, Fenja
- Popularity: Fenna ranked No. 45 in the Netherlands in 2025 per national registration figures, with the variant Fenne at No. 106, making this one of the strongest Frisian names on the national list.
Fien
Fien is the tail end of Josefien, the Dutch form of Josephine, which reaches back to the Hebrew Yosef and the sense of he will add. Taking the last syllable rather than the first is a very Dutch move, and it is how Lotte came out of Charlotte and Sanne out of Susanna. These clipped forms are now registered as full legal names in their own right. One syllable, one vowel sound, and no chance of mispronunciation once you know that ie is ee. Worth a place on any shortlist of unique girl names.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: He will add
- Pronunciation: FEEN
- Variations: Fiene, Fine, Josefien, Fenne
- Namesakes: Fien Troch, the Belgian film director; Fien de la Mar, the Dutch stage and film actress.
- Popularity: Fien ranked No. 55 in the Netherlands in 2025, with the longer Fiene also in use.
Fleur
Fleur is simply the French word for flower, from Latin flos, and the Dutch adopted it wholesale rather than translating it. It reached a wide audience through Galsworthy’s Forsyte novels and later through Harry Potter, but in the Netherlands it needed no help. Among flower names it is the least fussy option available, since it names the whole category instead of one bloom. The vowel is the only hurdle for English speakers: it is the French eu, closer to the sound in her than in floor. Fleurine and Flore are the longer Dutch options if a single syllable feels too spare.
- Origin: French, Latin
- Meaning: Flower
- Pronunciation: FLUHR
- Variations: Fleurette, Fleurine, Flore
- Namesakes: Fleur Forsyte, the central figure of the later Forsyte Saga novels; Fleur Agema, the Dutch politician.
- Popularity: Fleur ranked No. 53 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, and it has stayed inside the Dutch top 100 for well over two decades.
Frederika
Frederika is the feminine of Frederik, built from the Old High German fridu, peace, and rihhi, ruler or power. That combination is the reason it kept turning up in German and Dutch royal households for three centuries. Five syllables is a serious commitment, and Dutch families have always solved it by using Rika, Riek or Frieda instead. The full name has an old formality that suits a middle-name slot better than a first. Frederique is the French-influenced spelling that Dutch families also use. The k version stays closer to the Germanic root and to the Dutch Frederik.
- Origin: Germanic
- Meaning: Peaceful ruler
- Pronunciation: fray-duh-REE-kah
- Variations: Frederica, Frederique, Rika, Frieda
- Popularity: Frederika is a heritage name in Dutch, German and Scandinavian families and gets almost no Dutch registrations now; its short form Rika outlasted it in daily use.
Geertruida
Geertruida is the Dutch form of Gertrude, from the Old German ger, spear, and thrud, strength. The gentler readings sometimes attached to it come from Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, patron of travelers, gardeners and, by a later tradition, cats. It is one of the longest names on this list and one of the most heavily nicknamed, with Geertje, Truus and Trudy all doing daily duty. The ui in the middle is a Dutch sound with no English equivalent, closest to the vowel in house said with rounded lips. As heritage names come back, this is the kind that returns through a middle name first.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Spear strength
- Pronunciation: khayr-TROW-dah
- Variations: Geertje, Truus, Trudy, Gertrude
- Popularity: Geertruida faded after the 1950s and does not appear in the Dutch 2025 registrations, surviving mainly as a first name on official documents where Truus is used in daily life.
Godelieve
Godelieve is the Dutch and Flemish form of Godeliva, joining god to the element liof, dear or beloved. Its history is Flemish and grim: Godelieve of Gistel was murdered on her husband’s orders in 1070 and became a local saint, with a well and a church still bearing her name. The related Godiva is the Latinized version of the same construction, which is a useful piece of context. Four syllables in Dutch, with the g sounding like a soft throat-clear rather than an English g. Godelief is the shorter Dutch spelling, and Lieve on its own is a name in current use. Four syllables and a guttural opening make it heavy to carry daily, which is exactly why those short forms exist.
- Origin: Dutch, Flemish
- Meaning: Beloved of God
- Pronunciation: KHOH-duh-leev
- Variations: Godeliva, Godelief, Godiva
- Namesakes: Saint Godelieve of Gistel, an eleventh-century Flemish saint.
- Popularity: Godelieve is Flemish first and Dutch second, and it does not chart in the Netherlands for 2025; in Belgium it remains a recognisable if elderly name.
Grietje
Grietje is a diminutive of Margriet, the Dutch form of Margaret, from the Greek margarites, pearl. Margriet is also the Dutch word for the daisy, so the name carries a flower and a gemstone at once. Dutch children know it from Hans en Grietje, which is what the Grimms called Hansel and Gretel. The pearl sense got a second life in fiction through the servant girl of Girl with a Pearl Earring, whose name is the short form Griet. Greet and Greetje are the northern variants, and all of them shorten to Griet. Margriet remains the full form and belongs to a Dutch princess as well as a flower.
- Origin: Dutch, Greek
- Meaning: Pearl
- Pronunciation: KHREET-yuh
- Variations: Griet, Greet, Greetje, Margriet
- Namesakes: Griet, the fictional narrator of Tracy Chevalier’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.
- Popularity: Grietje is a historical Dutch name that no longer reaches the top 200, though Griet has kept a foothold in Flanders and the whole -tje family is being revisited by younger parents.
Gusta
Gusta is a short form of Augusta, the feminine of Augustus, from Latin augustus, great or venerable. Rome handed that word to its emperors, which is a heavy inheritance for two syllables. The Dutch cut it down the way they cut down everything, and then produced Guusje as a further diminutive that has outrun the original. Gusta lands with a hard first syllable that gives it real spine, and it is one of the few short names here that sounds older than it is. August and Augustijn are the masculine siblings, which makes Gusta workable in a family that wants matched names. The hard opening consonant is the main thing standing between it and wider use.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Great, venerable
- Pronunciation: KHOOS-tah
- Variations: Augusta, Guusje, Guus, Gustava
- Popularity: Gusta itself is rare in the 2025 Dutch registrations, but the related Guusje is still handed to Dutch babies, so the family is far from finished.
Gwen
Gwen is Welsh, from the element gwen, white, fair or blessed, and it serves as a short form of Gwendolen and Guinevere; lists that give it a Dutch origin have simply mislabeled it. The color sense runs toward purity and holiness in Welsh usage rather than describing a complexion. One clipped syllable makes it a rare Welsh name that needs no coaching anywhere in Europe.
- Origin: Welsh
- Meaning: White, fair, blessed
- Pronunciation: GWEN
- Variations: Gwenn, Gwenda, Gwendolen, Guinevere
- Namesakes: Gwen Stefani, the American singer.
- Popularity: Gwen is Welsh and American in practice rather than Dutch, and it does not appear in the Netherlands’ 2025 top 200, though its single-syllable shape fits Dutch taste well.
Hanna
Hanna is the Hebrew Channah, favor or grace, and it doubles as a Dutch short form of Johanna. Choosing between Hanna and Hannah is the only real decision here, and the Netherlands is currently split between the two. The name works in Arabic, Hebrew, Slavic, Nordic and Germanic families without adjustment, which is a genuinely short list of names. Its biblical bearer prayed for a child and got Samuel, which gives the grace sense a specific rather than abstract shape. Hanne, Hanneke and Hannie are all Dutch forms of the same root and all still in use. That gives one very short name an unusually deep set of alternatives to fall back on.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Favor, grace
- Pronunciation: HAH-nah
- Variations: Anne, Anna, Hannah, Johanna
- Namesakes: Hanna Obbeek, a Dutch actress.
- Popularity: Hanna ranked No. 81 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the national list, while the h-ending spelling Hannah sat higher at No. 46.
Hannie
Hannie is a Dutch diminutive of Johanna, the feminine of Johannes, from the Hebrew Yochanan, Yahweh is gracious. Its weight in the Netherlands comes from Hannie Schaft, the law student who joined the armed resistance and was shot in the dunes three weeks before liberation. Dutch schools still teach her, and streets in a dozen cities carry the name. To an English ear it sounds almost exactly like honey, which softens a name with a hard history. Hanny is the alternative spelling and Hanneke the fuller diminutive. Johanna is the formal version, which is what most Dutch Hannies carry on a passport.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
- Pronunciation: HAH-nee
- Variations: Hanny, Hanneke, Johanna, Hanke
- Namesakes: Hannie Schaft, the Dutch resistance fighter executed in 1945; Hannie Termeulen, a Dutch Olympic swimmer.
- Popularity: Hannie is a mid-century Dutch name outside the 2025 top 200, but it is one of the most recognisable names in modern Dutch history thanks to a single bearer.
Haven
Haven comes from Old English haefen, a harbor, and the identical Dutch haven means exactly the same thing, which is real Germanic kinship rather than coincidence and the reason the name sits on a Dutch list at all. As a first name it belongs to the American habit of using plain nouns, which is why Rotterdam has a haven and Ohio has a Haven. The meaning does most of the work, and it is hard to argue with a name that means a safe place to arrive.
- Origin: Dutch, Old English
- Meaning: Harbor, port
- Pronunciation: HAY-ven
- Variations: Havyn, Haeven
- Namesakes: Haven Gillespie, the American songwriter behind Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.
- Popularity: Haven is an American word name rather than a Dutch given name and does not appear in the Dutch 2025 registrations, although haven is the ordinary Dutch word for a harbor.
Hendrika
Hendrika is the feminine of Hendrik, the Dutch Henry, from the Old German heim, home, and rih, ruler. It was one of the workhorse names of the nineteenth-century Netherlands, which is why almost every long Dutch family tree has several. Its best claim to fame is scientific: Hendrika van Leeuwen worked out, independently of Niels Bohr, why classical physics cannot explain magnetism. Four syllables invites a short form, and Dutch families have used Riek, Rika and Henny for exactly that. Henriette is the French-influenced sibling that Dutch families used interchangeably for years. Hendrikje and Hendrina are the other Dutch feminines built on the same root.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Home ruler
- Pronunciation: hen-DREE-kah
- Variations: Henrika, Hendrikje, Hendrina, Rika, Riek
- Namesakes: Hendrika Johanna van Leeuwen, the Dutch physicist who co-discovered the Bohr-van Leeuwen theorem.
- Popularity: Hendrika was a Dutch staple for generations and now sits outside the 2025 top 200, though it remains common as an official first name behind a shorter calling name.
Ilse
Ilse is a German and Dutch diminutive of Elisabeth, so it belongs with Elsje, Betje and Els rather than standing on its own. Two syllables with a crisp l gives it a tidiness that longer Elisabeth forms lose. Ilse DeLange has been the name’s public face in the Netherlands for twenty-five years, which is unusually specific for a name this common. English speakers will more likely picture Ilsa from Casablanca, spelled with an a and pronounced the same. Else and Els are the plainer short forms of the same parent name, so a family can pick the register it wants. All of them sit under Elisabeth, quietly one of the most productive names in Dutch.
- Origin: Dutch, German
- Meaning: My God is an oath
- Pronunciation: IL-suh
- Variations: Ilsa, Ilske, Else, Elisabeth
- Namesakes: Ilse DeLange, the Dutch singer and Eurovision runner-up.
- Popularity: Ilse had a long Dutch run through the 1980s and 1990s and has since dropped below the top 200, so it now reads as a name for someone in her thirties or forties.
Indy
Indy is a variant of Indie and works as a short form of Indiana, India and Indigo, and the gloss independent that follows it around on name lists is folk etymology built from the first syllable rather than an attested meaning. In the Netherlands it is registered mostly for girls, while Britain and the United States keep it firmly unisex. Two syllables and an open ending make it feel like a nickname that never needed a long form, which is precisely how Dutch parents use it.
- Origin: English, Dutch
- Meaning: From Indiana or India
- Pronunciation: IN-dee
- Variations: Indie, Indi, India, Indiana
- Popularity: Indy ranked No. 184 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, having arrived from British usage in the 2010s.
Isa
Dutch Isa is a short form of Isabella, which came from Isabel, which came from Elizabeth, so the Hebrew sense of my God is an oath sits four steps back, and lists that give it a Persian origin meaning strong-willed have confused it with the Arabic Isa, a masculine name for Jesus. Both exist, and in the Netherlands the Isabella line is the one in use. Three letters and two syllables put it at the extreme short end of this list, which is where Dutch taste currently sits.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: My God is an oath
- Pronunciation: EE-sah
- Variations: Isabel, Isabella, Iza, Isabeau
- Popularity: Isa ranked No. 37 in the Netherlands in 2025 according to national registration figures, one of the strongest of the very short Dutch girls’ names.
Jade
Jade takes its name from the gemstone, and the word came into European languages from Spanish piedra de la ijada, stone of the flank, because the stone was once thought to cure kidney complaints, which is an unglamorous origin for a very pretty name. The Netherlands pronounces it the French way, closer to ZHAHD than to the English JAYD, which is worth knowing before a Dutch relative says it aloud. Once broadly unisex, it now reads as female almost everywhere.
- Origin: Spanish, French
- Meaning: Stone of the flank
- Pronunciation: ZHAHD
- Variations: Jada, Jayda, Jaden
- Namesakes: Jade MacRae, an Australian singer.
- Popularity: Jade ranked No. 81 in the Netherlands in 2025, the SVB’s figures show, sharing that position with Hanna.
Janna
Janna is the feminine of Jan, the Dutch John, which puts the Hebrew Yochanan and its sense of Yahweh is gracious behind it, and the same construction produced Janneke, Jantje and Jannie, each a further diminutive of the same root. The Dutch j is pronounced like an English y, so this is YAH-nah rather than JAN-uh, and that single fact catches out most English speakers. It is a plain, unshowy name in the best sense, and it has never been fashionable enough to date.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Yahweh is gracious
- Pronunciation: YAH-nah
- Variations: Jana, Janneke, Johanna, Jantje
- Popularity: Janna ranked No. 250 in the Netherlands in 2025 per national registration figures, a modest showing for a name that was once everywhere in Dutch and Frisian families.
Jaylinn
Jaylinn is a variant of Jaylynn, one of the American Jay- and -lyn coinages that the Netherlands picked up and briefly made its own. It is not a feminine form of any boy’s name, and the meanings sometimes listed for it are invented after the fact, since modern coinages have no etymology and this one was assembled purely for its sound. That sound is genuinely pleasant, two bright syllables ending on a soft n, and it needs no explanation in English.
- Origin: American, Dutch
- Meaning: Modern coinage; no attested meaning
- Pronunciation: JAY-lin
- Variations: Jaylynn, Jaylin, Jayleen
- Popularity: Jaylinn had a distinctly Dutch spike in the 2010s and has since fallen out of the top 200, which is the normal life cycle for an invented name.
Jetje
Jetje belongs to the Jet family, short forms of Henriette, which traces back through Henry to the Old German sense of home ruler. Dutch emigrants to America routinely swapped it for the nearest English sound, which is how a Jetje became a Jessie or a Jessica in a single generation. The double -je ending marks it as a diminutive of a diminutive, which is about as Dutch as a name can get. It is also a reminder that English versions of Dutch names are usually substitutions rather than translations.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Home ruler
- Pronunciation: YET-yuh
- Variations: Jet, Jetta, Henriette, Jettie
- Popularity: Jetje is a historical Dutch name absent from the 2025 top 200, though the bare Jet is still in everyday Dutch use.
Julitta
Julitta is a Latin diminutive of Julia, the feminine of the Roman family name Julius, so the sense is belonging to the Julii rather than anything about youth. The youthful gloss comes from a later folk link to iuvenis, young, which the Romans themselves did not make. Its survival owes almost everything to Saint Julitta, whose cult spread across the medieval Low Countries. Against the flat popularity of Julia, Julitta offers the same root with a far longer shape and a genuine history behind the extra syllables. Julitte is the other attested spelling, and Juul is the Dutch short form already on this list. Anyone drawn to Julia but wary of how common it is has a real alternative here.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Of the Julian family
- Pronunciation: yoo-LIT-ah
- Variations: Julia, Julie, Juul, Julitte
- Namesakes: Saint Julitta of Iconium, a fourth-century martyr venerated with her infant son Cyricus.
- Popularity: Julitta is rare everywhere and is nowhere on the 2025 Dutch list, while Julia was the country’s fourth most popular girls’ name that year.
Juna
Juna is a recent Dutch and German name whose origin is honestly unsettled. It is read variously as a form of Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage and childbirth, as a spelling of June, and as a sibling of Luna. None of those readings has better evidence than the others, and a name this new does not need a settled etymology to work. What it has instead is timing: it sits beside Luna, Yuna and Nova in exactly the sound Dutch parents are choosing right now.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Uncertain; linked to Juno and to June
- Pronunciation: YOO-nah
- Variations: Yuna, Junia, June
- Popularity: Juna ranked No. 63 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, one of the fastest-rising short names on the Dutch list.
Juul
Juul is the Dutch clipped form of the whole Julia and Julius family, which is why it works for either sex. The vowel is a long Dutch uu, closer to the French u than to anything English, so YOOL is an approximation rather than a match. Its one practical problem is international: in the United States the same spelling belongs to a vaping brand, and Jules travels better. Inside the Netherlands none of that registers, and Juul is simply one of the most-used short names of the decade.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Of the Julian family
- Pronunciation: YOOL
- Variations: Jules, Julia, Julius, Juultje
- Popularity: Juul ranked No. 64 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the national list, used for girls and boys alike.
Kiki
Kiki is a pet form rather than a name with an etymology, used across Dutch, French and Greek for anything beginning with a k sound. The meaning double happiness that circulates on name lists is a Chinese motif with no connection to it, and the honest answer is that the name means what its bearers make of it. In the Netherlands that bearer is Kiki Bertens, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals and the world top five. Doubled syllables usually read very young, so it is worth checking that the name still fits at forty.
- Origin: Dutch, French
- Meaning: Pet form; no separate meaning
- Pronunciation: KEE-kee
- Variations: Kiek, Kikkie, Kika
- Namesakes: Kiki Bertens, the Dutch tennis player and former world No. 4; Kiki de Montparnasse, the model and singer of 1920s Paris.
- Popularity: Kiki ranked No. 137 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, well past the point where it could be called a nickname.
Klaartje
Klaartje is a diminutive of Klara, from the Latin clarus, bright or clear, and it keeps that sense intact. Dutch readers know it from Klaartje in Bordewijk’s fiction and from the many -tje names that filled Dutch households a century ago. The consonant cluster at the front is more of a hurdle than the ending, since KL followed by a long a is not a common English opening. Inside Dutch it is warm and slightly playful, and Klaar on its own is a real option. Claartje with a c is the older Dutch spelling and fills nineteenth-century registers. Klaar on its own is the shortest workable form and doubles as the Dutch word for ready.
- Origin: Dutch, Latin
- Meaning: Bright, clear
- Pronunciation: KLAHRT-yuh
- Variations: Clara, Klara, Klaar, Claartje
- Popularity: Klaartje is a Dutch and Flemish name outside the 2025 top 200, but it is exactly the kind of -tje name younger Dutch parents have begun putting back into use.
Lana
Lana comes out of the Slavic names that end in -lana, chiefly Svetlana and Milana, and it doubles as a short form of the Irish Alana. Two open syllables and a single consonant sound give it that international quality where no language has to adapt it. It has been helped along by two very different famous bearers in the last fifteen years. The Slavic light reading is the one most Dutch parents mean by it.
- Origin: Slavic, Irish
- Meaning: Light, rock
- Pronunciation: LAH-nah
- Variations: Lahna, Alana, Svetlana, Milana
- Namesakes: Lana Del Rey, the American singer; Lana Condor, the American actress.
- Popularity: Lana ranked No. 176 in the Netherlands in 2025 according to national registration figures, part of a broad Dutch turn toward short Slavic names.
Lara
Lara is the Russian short form of Larissa, a Greek city name usually read as citadel, and it reached western Europe through Doctor Zhivago and the 1965 film. A separate Roman Lara, or Larunda, appears in Ovid as a nymph punished for repeating a secret, which is a good story but a different name. Dutch parents use it as a clean two-syllable choice that reads the same in nine languages. The only real caution is how closely it sits to Laura, Sara and Yara on a class list.
- Origin: Russian, Latin
- Meaning: Citadel; also a Roman nymph
- Pronunciation: LAH-rah
- Variations: Larissa, Laura, Larah
- Namesakes: Lara Antipova, the central figure of Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago; Lara Jones, a British children’s author and illustrator.
- Popularity: Lara ranked No. 57 in the Netherlands in 2025, the SVB’s figures show, one of the highest placings of any name on this list.
Lieke
Lieke is a Dutch pet form used for Angelique and related names, which is where the angel or messenger sense comes from. Unlike most of the names here it has almost no life outside the Netherlands and Flanders, so it stays unmistakably local. Lieke Martens gave it a global moment in 2017 when she was named the best women’s footballer in the world. The ie is a long ee and the -ke a soft kuh, so LEE-kuh rather than LIKE. Liek is the barest short form and Lieveke the fuller Flemish one. Because the name is so local, a Lieke abroad will spend her life correcting LIKE.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Angel, messenger
- Pronunciation: LEE-kuh
- Variations: Liek, Angelique, Lieveke
- Namesakes: Lieke Martens, the Dutch footballer named FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year in 2017.
- Popularity: Lieke ranked No. 32 in the Netherlands in 2025 per national registration figures, one of the highest-placed exclusively Dutch names on the chart.
Lina
Lina is a short form of the many names ending in -lina, from Carolina and Adelina to Angelina, and it carries no independent meaning of its own, and the separate Hebrew, French and Russian meanings sometimes handed to it belong to other words that only look similar. What it does have is reach: the same two syllables work in Dutch, German, Arabic, Italian and Swedish without a single adjustment. That is why it charts across so much of Europe at once rather than in one country.
- Origin: German, Latin
- Meaning: Short form; no separate meaning
- Pronunciation: LEE-nah
- Variations: Line, Lena, Carolina, Adelina
- Namesakes: Lina Bo Bardi, the Italian-Brazilian modernist architect.
- Popularity: Lina ranked No. 29 in the Netherlands in 2025, and it charts in Germany, France and the Nordic countries at similar heights.
Liv
Liv is Old Norse, from hlif, protection, and it coincides exactly with the modern Norwegian, Swedish and Danish word liv, life. Both readings are legitimate, which is unusual and gives the name a double meaning that is not invented. In Norse myth Lif and Lifthrasir are the two who survive Ragnarok and repopulate the world, which is where the life sense gets its mythological anchor. Dutch parents also use it as a short form of Olivia, so it arrives from two directions at once. Live and Liva are the Norwegian spellings and both now get registered in the Netherlands too. One syllable and three letters put it among the shortest names here.
- Origin: Old Norse
- Meaning: Protection, life
- Pronunciation: LIV
- Variations: Live, Liva, Livia, Olivia
- Namesakes: Liv Ullmann, the Norwegian actress and director.
- Popularity: Liv ranked No. 27 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, with the related Livia at No. 38 on the same list.
Lotte
Lotte is the Dutch and German short form of Charlotte, which came through French from Charles and the Old German karl, a free man. Goethe’s Lotte in The Sorrows of Young Werther made it a European name in 1774 and set off something close to a literary craze. It has since gone the way of most Dutch favorites and become a full legal name rather than a nickname, with Lot used separately as a name in its own right. The double t keeps the vowel short, so it is LOT-uh and never LOH-tee.
- Origin: Dutch, German
- Meaning: Free man
- Pronunciation: LOT-uh
- Variations: Lot, Lotta, Charlotte, Lottie
- Namesakes: Lotte Lenya, the Austrian singer and actress; Lotte Hollands, a Dutch mathematical physicist.
- Popularity: Lotte ranked No. 22 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the national list, holding a top-25 place it has occupied for most of two decades.
Luna
Luna is the Latin word for the moon and the name of the Roman goddess who personified it, usually shown driving a chariot across the night sky. That image is the real source of the name’s mood, and it needs no embellishing. Its modern surge is genuinely international, running through Dutch, Spanish, Italian and American charts at the same time. Two syllables, one meaning, no ambiguity about spelling in any language that uses the Latin alphabet. Lune is the Dutch variant and Louna the French one, so the family is wider than it first looks. Its one drawback is that same popularity, since a Dutch Luna will rarely be the only one in a room.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Moon
- Pronunciation: LOO-nah
- Variations: Lune, Louna, Lunette
- Namesakes: Luna Schweiger, the German actress.
- Popularity: Luna ranked No. 12 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, and the Dutch variant Lune is registered separately.
Madelief
Madelief is the Dutch madeliefje, a daisy, with the diminutive ending taken off. The second half of the word is lief, dear or beloved, which is why the name reads as affectionate even to Dutch speakers who have never thought about its parts. Guus Kuijer’s Madelief books are a fixture of Dutch childhood and gave the name a character rather than just a flower. Outside the Netherlands it will need explaining every time, and it is worth it. Lief on its own is used as a name too, and Madelieve is the longer form. Among Dutch flower names it is the least borrowed, since Fleur is French and Roos is shared with half of Europe.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Daisy
- Pronunciation: MAH-duh-leef
- Variations: Madelieve, Madelien, Lief
- Namesakes: Madelief, the heroine of Guus Kuijer’s award-winning Dutch children’s novels.
- Popularity: Madelief ranked No. 225 in the Netherlands in 2025 according to national registration figures, a real presence for a name that exists almost nowhere else.
Maja
Maja arrives from two directions: as a Scandinavian and Slavic form of Maria, and as a spelling of the Greek Maia, the eldest Pleiad and the mother of Hermes. Roman writers linked that Maia to the growth of spring, which is where the season reading comes from. The j is pronounced like an English y, so MY-ah, and confusing it with the English Maja spelling is easy. It travels well across Europe and needs a pronunciation note everywhere else.
- Origin: Scandinavian, Slavic
- Meaning: Form of Maria and of Maia
- Pronunciation: MY-ah
- Variations: Maya, Maia, Maj, Majka
- Popularity: Maja ranked No. 261 in the Netherlands in 2025, the SVB’s figures show, far behind its position in Sweden, Poland and Slovenia where it has spent years near the top.
Malou
Malou is a contraction of Marie-Louise, which is why it carries the meanings of both halves: the Maria family on one side and the Germanic hlud and wig, renowned battle, on the other. Compound French names shortened this way were fashionable in the Low Countries in the twentieth century, and Milou is the same trick applied to the same pair. The stress lands on the second syllable, which gives a fairly soft name a definite ending. Anyone who grew up with Tintin will hear Milou as the dog’s name, which is a fair reason to prefer Malou.
- Origin: Dutch, French
- Meaning: Beloved, renowned warrior
- Pronunciation: mah-LOO
- Variations: Marie-Louise, Marilou, Milou
- Namesakes: Malou van Sluis, the Dutch presenter; Malou Ejdesgaard, the Danish tennis player.
- Popularity: Malou sits outside the Dutch top 200 for 2025, while the closely related Milou re-entered the national top ten at No. 9 per national registration figures.
Marian
Dutch Marian is the local form of Marianne, itself a blend of Marie and Anne, which is why the meanings usually listed for it come in pairs. Its unisex status is real but geographical rather than modern: Marian is a men’s name across much of central and eastern Europe and a women’s name in the Netherlands, Britain and America. Maid Marian gave the English version its long life. Three syllables with the stress at the front keeps it steady rather than lilting.
- Origin: Dutch, French
- Meaning: Blend of Marie and Anne
- Pronunciation: MAH-ree-ahn
- Variations: Marion, Marianne, Mariam
- Popularity: Marian is a mid-century name in Dutch, English and Polish use and does not chart in the Netherlands for 2025; in Poland and Romania it remains a common masculine name.
Marieke
Marieke is a Dutch diminutive of Maria, built with the northern -ke ending rather than the standard -je, which gives it a faintly Frisian color. Jacques Brel’s 1961 song Marieke made it briefly famous across the French-speaking world, sung half in French and half in Dutch. It is a solid, unfussy name that has never needed a fashion cycle to justify it. Three syllables in Dutch, with the stress in the middle, and the final e always sounded. Marijke and Maaike are sibling Dutch forms of the same parent name. Mariek and Marij both work as short forms. Because the middle syllable carries the stress, it pairs better with a short surname than a long one.
- Origin: Dutch, Frisian
- Meaning: Form of Maria
- Pronunciation: mah-REE-kuh
- Variations: Marijke, Mariek, Maaike, Marij
- Namesakes: Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, the Dutch writer who won the International Booker Prize in 2020; Marieke Vervoort, the Belgian Paralympic champion.
- Popularity: Marieke is outside the Dutch top 200 for 2025 after decades of steady use, and it now reads as a name for a Dutch woman in her forties or fifties.
Marit
Marit is the Norwegian and Swedish form of Margaret, from the Greek margarites, a pearl, so the regal air it carries is inherited rather than invented. Lists that assign it an Aramaic origin meaning lady have confused it with the unrelated Martha. Its most famous bearer is a Norwegian skier with fifteen Olympic medals, which lends the name a certain toughness. Two clean syllables and a hard final t make it unusually easy to say correctly in English. Marita and Margit are the longer Scandinavian forms if Marit feels too clipped. Merit is an English near-homophone that will cause the occasional mix-up. The Dutch pronunciation keeps both vowels short, so it is MAH-rit and never mah-REET.
- Origin: Norwegian, Greek
- Meaning: Pearl
- Pronunciation: MAH-rit
- Variations: Marita, Margit, Margaret, Merit
- Namesakes: Marit Bjoergen, the Norwegian cross-country skier and most decorated Winter Olympian; Marit Velle Kile, a Norwegian actress.
- Popularity: Marit ranked No. 211 in the Netherlands in 2025, a quiet but genuine Dutch presence for a Scandinavian import.
Maud
Maud is the medieval English and French form of Matilda, from the Old German maht, might, and hild, battle. Medieval England had so many Maudes that the name became shorthand for an ordinary woman, and the Empress Matilda was known by it throughout her war for the crown. The Netherlands revived it decades before English speakers did, and it is now a mainstream Dutch choice. The Dutch au is the vowel in house, so MOWT rather than the English MAWD.
- Origin: Germanic, Old French
- Meaning: Mighty in battle
- Pronunciation: MOWT
- Variations: Maude, Mathilde, Machteld, Mautje
- Namesakes: Maud of England, the twelfth-century claimant to the English throne; Maud Gonne, the Irish activist and muse of W. B. Yeats.
- Popularity: Maud ranked No. 30 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, a striking placing for a name that reads as strictly historical in English.
Mieke
Mieke is a Dutch diminutive of Marie and Maria, one of a dozen forms the Dutch built from the same name. The long list of meanings often printed against it belongs to Maria, whose own Hebrew root Miryam has never been settled. As a short and warm name it does its work in two syllables, and it is the classic mid-century Dutch aunt name, which puts it about one generation away from coming back.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Form of Maria
- Pronunciation: MEE-kuh
- Variations: Miek, Mieneke, Maaike, Mia
- Popularity: Mieke is outside the Dutch top 200 for 2025 and belongs to an older generation, while the shorter Mia and Mie have taken over the same territory.
Myrthe
Myrthe comes from Dutch mirte, the myrtle shrub, and it is a cognate of the English Myrtle rather than a borrowing from it. Myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite and Venus and has been a wedding plant across Europe for centuries, which gives a plain plant name a long history. It also stays green all year, and Dutch parents who choose it tend to mean that. The spelling is the whole problem outside the Netherlands, where Myrthe, Mirthe and Mirte are all in use and all pronounced the same. Deciding the spelling before the birth certificate is filled in saves a lifetime of corrections. Mirte is the plainest option and the closest to the Dutch word itself. Myrtle is the English cognate and reads considerably older.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Myrtle
- Pronunciation: MIR-tuh
- Variations: Mirthe, Mirte, Myrte, Myrtle
- Popularity: Myrthe sits around No. 325 on the Dutch list for 2025, while the spelling Mirthe ranked No. 165 on the national list, so the two spellings have swapped places.
Nienke
Nienke is the Dutch spelling of the Frisian Nynke, a diminutive in the Katherine family, which is where the pure reading comes from. Katherine’s own origin is genuinely uncertain and was pulled toward Greek katharos, pure, only later, so that meaning is traditional rather than original. The name is strongest in Friesland and among N names for girls it is one of the few that is unmistakably Dutch. If the Frisian spelling appeals, Nynke is the older form and still in use. See our entry on Katherine for the wider family. It shortens to Nien in daily use, which is about as economical as Dutch gets. Nynke is the Frisian spelling and is still used in the north. Both are pronounced identically, so the choice is about which tradition you want on the certificate.
- Origin: Frisian, Greek
- Meaning: Pure
- Pronunciation: NEEN-kuh
- Variations: Nynke, Niene, Nine, Nienk
- Popularity: Nienke sits around No. 283 on the Dutch list for 2025, so it is recognisable to any Dutch ear without being common in a classroom.
Noa
Noa is a biblical feminine name in its own right, borne by one of the five daughters of Zelophehad who successfully petitioned Moses for the right to inherit. It is a different Hebrew name from the masculine Noah, which means rest, and the two only look alike in English. Israel made Noa a top girls’ name decades before the Netherlands did. Three letters, two syllables, and a story about women winning a legal argument in the Book of Numbers. Nova, one letter away, sits in the Dutch top 40, and Noe is a third neighbor on the same chart. The name needs no spelling help in any language that uses the Latin alphabet. The only real caution is how readily it gets read as the masculine name in English-speaking settings.
- Origin: Hebrew
- Meaning: Movement
- Pronunciation: NOH-ah
- Variations: Noah, Noé, Nova
- Popularity: Noa ranked No. 44 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, and it charts separately from the masculine Noah.
Noor
Noor arrives in Dutch from two unrelated directions, and that is the whole reason it now leads the national chart. It is the Dutch short form of Eleonora, and it is also the Arabic Nur, meaning light, so Dutch families of very different backgrounds have been choosing the same four letters. Its rise was quick: seventh place one year and first the next. One syllable, no silent letters, and a spelling that works in both traditions without compromise. Noortje, the diminutive, charts separately at No. 221.
- Origin: Dutch, Arabic
- Meaning: Light
- Pronunciation: NOR
- Variations: Noortje, Nour, Nur, Eleonora
- Namesakes: Noor Inayat Khan, the British wartime radio operator executed at Dachau; Queen Noor of Jordan.
- Popularity: Noor was the most popular girls’ name in the Netherlands in 2025, given to 705 baby girls and taking the top spot from Emma, according to national registration figures.
Nora
Nora is a short form of Honora, from Latin honor, and of Eleanor, and it is not related to the Arabic Noor despite the shared sound. The light meaning printed against it on most name lists comes from exactly that mix-up. Its cultural weight is theatrical: Ibsen’s Nora walked out of her marriage in 1879 and slammed a door that European drama is still talking about. Two syllables and an unmistakable spelling explain why it charts in almost every western country at once. Norah with an h and Nore without the a are both registered in the Netherlands, so the spelling is a real decision. Its one drawback is company, since Noor, Norah and Nore all chart at the same time. Nonie and No are the usual informal forms if a nickname is wanted.
- Origin: Latin, Occitan
- Meaning: Honor
- Pronunciation: NOR-ah
- Variations: Norah, Honora, Nore, Eleonora
- Namesakes: Nora Helmer, the central character of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House; Nora Ephron, the American writer and director.
- Popularity: Nora ranked third in the Netherlands in 2025, the SVB’s figures show, and the spellings Norah and Nore are used alongside it, making the whole family very hard to avoid.
Pien
Pien is a Dutch diminutive of Josephine, so it shares its root with Fien: the Hebrew Yosef and the sense of he will add, and two names from opposite ends of the same original is a very Dutch outcome. It is one syllable long and completely unknown outside the Netherlands, which makes it a genuine local choice rather than an international one. English speakers will read the ie as in pie unless told otherwise, so PEEN is worth saying out loud early.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: He will add
- Pronunciation: PEEN
- Variations: Pientje, Josephine, Fien
- Popularity: Pien ranked No. 182 in the Netherlands in 2025 per national registration figures, holding steady rather than climbing.
Rika
Rika is the tail of Frederika, Hendrika and Ricarda, all of which end in the Germanic element rihhi, ruler or power. That makes it a Germanic and Scandinavian name rather than a Persian one, whatever some lists say. Its full-name parents have gone out of fashion, but the short form is exactly the shape Dutch parents now favor, which gives it a plausible route back. Two syllables, a long ee, and a meaning with more backbone than most gentle-sounding names. Erika and Ricarda are the other full names it can sit under, which widens the family considerably. The single k is the Dutch spelling. Riek is the blunter form and Rieka the softer one, and both are still heard in the north.
- Origin: Germanic, Scandinavian
- Meaning: Ruler
- Pronunciation: REE-kah
- Variations: Riek, Rieka, Frederika, Hendrika
- Popularity: Rika is outside the 2025 Dutch top 200 and belongs to an older generation, having spent a century as the everyday form of Frederika and Hendrika.
Rineke
Rineke is a Dutch diminutive in the -rina family, drawn from Catharina and Marina rather than existing on its own. The Hebrew Rina, meaning joy or song, is a separate name that happens to overlap, and the two get merged on name lists more often than they should. Its public face is Rineke Dijkstra, whose portraits of adolescents hang in the Stedelijk and the Guggenheim. Three light syllables that fall away at the end, which is where the musical description comes from.
- Origin: Dutch
- Meaning: Form of Catharina and Marina
- Pronunciation: REE-nuh-kuh
- Variations: Rina, Rini, Rieneke, Reineke
- Namesakes: Rineke Dijkstra, the Dutch photographer known for her large-format portraits.
- Popularity: Rineke is rare and stays off the Dutch list for 2025; it is the kind of name a Dutch person recognises instantly and a non-Dutch person has never seen.
Romy
Romy is a short form of Rosemarie, Romana and the other Rom- names, and it became a name in its own right through Romy Schneider, who was christened Rosemarie. That is an unusually traceable origin for a nickname. The Netherlands then produced its own spelling, Romee, which now charts alongside it and is a small trap on a form. Two syllables that end high, which is what keeps a fairly serious set of source names sounding light. Romi and Romee are the other registered spellings, all pronounced the same way. Rosemarie is available as the full version for anyone who wants both. Since Romy and Romee chart within fifteen places of each other, the spelling matters more here than it usually does.
- Origin: German, Latin
- Meaning: Short form; from the Rose and Roma names
- Pronunciation: ROH-mee
- Variations: Romee, Romée, Romi, Rosemarie
- Namesakes: Romy Schneider, the Austrian-French actress; Romee Strijd, the Dutch model.
- Popularity: Romy ranked No. 152 in the Netherlands in 2025, well behind the Dutch spelling Romee at No. 43.
Sanne
Sanne is the Dutch and Danish short form of Susanna, from the Greek Sousanna and the Hebrew Shoshannah, a lily. The word travelled further back still, into Egyptian sshn for a lotus, which is a rare case of a name with a documented pre-Hebrew ancestor. It dominated Dutch birth registers in the 1980s and 1990s and has now handed over to newer short names. The double n keeps the first vowel short, and the final e is always pronounced. Suze and San are the other Dutch short forms of Susanna, and all three are in current use. Sanna with one n is the Finnish and Swedish spelling. Anyone who wants the lily meaning without the 1990s Dutch association can simply use Susanna.
- Origin: Dutch, Hebrew
- Meaning: Lily
- Pronunciation: SAH-nuh
- Variations: Suze, Susanna, San, Sanna
- Namesakes: Sanne Wevers, the Dutch gymnast and Olympic balance-beam champion.
- Popularity: Sanne ranked No. 202 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, well down from its long spell in the Dutch top 20.
Saskia
Saskia comes from the Old German element sahso, a Saxon, so it began as a name that said where someone was from. It has been in use in the Low Countries since the Middle Ages and owes its survival largely to Rembrandt, who married Saskia van Uylenburgh in 1634 and drew her constantly until her death eight years later. Additional meanings sometimes attached to it, such as protector of mankind or valley of light, do not trace to the name’s actual root. Three syllables with a hard opening consonant cluster give it more edge than most names on this list. It has no accepted short form in Dutch, which is unusual and means the whole name gets used. Rembrandt’s marriage into her family moved him into Amsterdam’s patrician circles, and the name traveled with his reputation. It has done better abroad than at home for the last twenty years.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: A Saxon
- Pronunciation: SAHS-kee-yah
- Variations: Saskja, Saske
- Namesakes: Saskia van Uylenburgh, Rembrandt’s wife and the subject of many of his drawings.
- Popularity: Saskia is outside the Dutch top 200 for 2025 but remains widely used in Britain, Germany and Australia, where it reads as distinctively Dutch.
Sidonia
Sidonia is the feminine of the Latin Sidonius, meaning of Sidon, the ancient Phoenician port in what is now Lebanon. It has no connection to Sydney, which comes from an English surname derived from Saint-Denis, despite the two being listed as variants of each other. Colette’s first name was Sidonie, after her mother, which is the name’s strongest cultural anchor. Four syllables and a soft center make it the most ornate name on this list, and it comes with Sid, Sido and Sonia already attached.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Of Sidon
- Pronunciation: see-DOH-nee-ah
- Variations: Sidonie, Sidony, Sidonija
- Namesakes: Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, the French novelist known simply as Colette.
- Popularity: Sidonia is rare across Europe and does not chart in the Netherlands for 2025, though the French Sidonie has had a modest revival.
Skylar
Skylar is the respelled form of Schuyler, a Dutch surname meaning scholar that came to New York with seventeenth-century settlers. The Schuyler family of Albany kept it prominent, and Hamilton put the Schuyler sisters in front of a new audience. It began as a masculine given name and is now used far more for girls in the United States, which is a common trajectory for surname names. The sky in the modern spelling is a coincidence that has done a lot of work for the name’s popularity.
- Origin: Dutch, American
- Meaning: Scholar
- Pronunciation: SKY-lar
- Variations: Skyler, Schuyler, Skylah
- Popularity: Skylar is an American name with a Dutch ancestor and is absent from the 2025 Dutch rankings, where the original Schuyler is read as a surname.
Sofie
Sofie is one of the many national forms of Sophia, which means wisdom in Greek and reached Europe through the Byzantine church rather than through classical literature. The f spelling is the Dutch and Scandinavian preference and the ph spelling the French and English one. Choosing between them is the only real decision, and in the Netherlands both are in heavy use at once. Soof, the Dutch short form, has become a name of its own.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Wisdom
- Pronunciation: SOH-fee
- Variations: Sophie, Sofia, Soof, Fieke
- Popularity: Sofie ranked No. 31 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the national list, with Sophie sixth, Sofia thirteenth and Sophia forty-second, so the family occupies four separate chart positions.
Tess
Tess is a short form of Theresa, whose own meaning has never been settled; the usual candidates are Greek theros, summer, and therizo, to harvest. Saying so is more honest than picking one. Hardy’s 1891 novel gave the English form its literary weight, and the Netherlands adopted the name late and then pushed it much higher than Britain ever did. One clipped syllable makes it the shortest name on this list and among the easiest for an English speaker to say correctly.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Uncertain; possibly harvest or summer
- Pronunciation: TES
- Variations: Tessa, Thera, Theresa, Tes
- Namesakes: Tess Durbeyfield, the title character of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
- Popularity: Tess ranked No. 14 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the Dutch chart, with Tessa at No. 134, after a spell inside the Dutch top ten.
Tulip
Tulip reached English through Ottoman Turkish tulbend and Persian dulband, both meaning turban, because the flower’s overlapping petals resemble the folds of wrapped cloth. Its Dutch connection is commercial rather than linguistic: the tulip mania of the 1630s remains the most famous speculative bubble in economic history, and the Netherlands still supplies most of the world’s bulbs. As a given name it is English rather than Dutch, and it is the boldest flower name here by a wide margin. Anyone using it will spend a lifetime explaining that the Dutch do not, in fact, name their daughters Tulip.
- Origin: Persian, Turkish
- Meaning: Turban
- Pronunciation: TOO-lip
- Variations: Tulipa, Tulp
- Popularity: Tulip is not registered as a Dutch first name in any number and does not appear in the 2025 charts; the Dutch flower names actually in use are Fleur, Roos and Madelief.
Valencia
Valencia is the Spanish city, and behind the city is the Latin valentia, strength or vigor, from the same root as Valentine and Valerie. Place names used as given names usually arrive through English-speaking countries, and this one is no exception; it is Spanish in origin and American in use. Four syllables give it a real sweep, and Val is waiting if that becomes tiring. Its inclusion on a Dutch list rests on usage among Dutch-speaking families rather than on any Dutch etymology.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Strength, vigor
- Pronunciation: vah-LEN-see-ah
- Variations: Valentia, Valencya, Valentina
- Popularity: Valencia is used in Britain and the United States rather than the Netherlands and does not chart there for 2025.
Veerle
Veerle is the Dutch and mainly Flemish form of Pharaildis, a Germanic name built from farina, to travel, and hild, battle. Its saint is the patron of Ghent, where the Sint-Veerleplein square still carries the shortened name. That gives a modern-sounding two-syllable name a documented history running back twelve centuries. The double e is a long ay in Dutch, and the final e is sounded, so VEER-luh rather than VERL.
- Origin: Dutch, Flemish
- Meaning: Traveling warrior
- Pronunciation: VEER-luh
- Variations: Veerleke, Pharaildis, Verle
- Namesakes: Saint Pharaildis, the eighth-century patron saint of Ghent, known in Flemish as Sint-Veerle.
- Popularity: Veerle ranked No. 66 in the Netherlands in 2025 according to national registration figures, a strong showing for a name that is almost unknown outside the Low Countries.
Vera
Vera means faith in Russian, and it also coincides with the Latin feminine verus, true, which is why both readings are given for it. Slavic families use it as one of the three virtue names, alongside Nadezhda for hope and Lyubov for love. Vera Rubin’s work on rotating galaxies changed what physics thinks the universe is made of, which is a substantial thing for a name to carry. Two syllables with a soft opening and a clean finish, and it has aged out of and back into fashion within a century.
- Origin: Russian, Latin
- Meaning: Faith, true
- Pronunciation: VAY-rah
- Variations: Verah, Wera, Verena
- Namesakes: Vera Rubin, the American astronomer whose galaxy measurements provided the first strong evidence for dark matter.
- Popularity: Vera ranked No. 74 in the Netherlands in 2025, the SVB’s figures show, one of several old-fashioned names that has come all the way back.
Verena
Verena is possibly related to the Latin verus, true, and its history belongs to Saint Verena, who according to tradition came to Switzerland with the Theban Legion in the third century. Dutch and German usage often treats it as a partner to Veronica, but the two are separate names and Verena is not a short form of it. The Swiss short form Vreni is a name in its own right there. Three syllables with the stress in the middle, and no letter that causes trouble in English.
- Origin: Latin
- Meaning: Possibly true
- Pronunciation: vuh-RAY-nah
- Variations: Verina, Vreni, Verene
- Namesakes: Saint Verena, a third-century saint venerated in Switzerland and the Rhineland.
- Popularity: Verena is stronger in Switzerland, Austria and Germany than in the Netherlands and misses the Dutch list for 2025.
Wilma
Wilma is a short form of Wilhelmina, the Dutch feminine of Wilhelm, from wil, will or desire, and helm, protection. It carries genuine Dutch weight: Wilhelmina reigned for 58 years, and her name filled Dutch birth registers for most of them. The Dutch w is closer to an English v, so VIL-mah is the local pronunciation. English speakers will hear The Flintstones first, which is the main reason the name has not yet made the return trip that Vera and Maud have.
- Origin: Dutch, Germanic
- Meaning: Resolute protection
- Pronunciation: VIL-mah
- Variations: Wilhelmina, Willemijn, Willy, Mien
- Namesakes: Fanny Blankers-Koen, born Francina Wilhelmina, the Dutch sprinter who won four gold medals at the 1948 Olympics; Wilma Rudolph, the American sprinter.
- Popularity: Wilma belongs to an older Dutch generation and is absent from the 2025 top 200, while the longer Willemijn has held on better among Dutch parents.
Yara
Yara comes from two unrelated traditions. In Brazil it is Iara, the water spirit of Tupi legend who lures men into the river, and in Arabic it is read as a small butterfly or a capable woman. Dutch usage draws on the Arabic line, which is how it climbed into the national top ten. It sits uncomfortably close to Lara, Sara and Zara on a register, and that similarity is part of why all four are doing well at once. Two open syllables and a rolled or tapped r depending on who is saying it.
- Origin: Arabic, Tupi
- Meaning: Lady of the water; small butterfly
- Pronunciation: YAH-rah
- Variations: Yarah, Iara, Jara
- Namesakes: Yara Shahidi, the American actress.
- Popularity: Yara ranked eighth in the Netherlands in 2025 per national registration figures, the highest placing of any Arabic-origin name on the Dutch chart.
Yuna
Yuna is most likely the Japanese Yuna, written with characters that can mean gentle, evening or vegetable, depending on the pair chosen; Brittany also has a Yuna as a feminine form of the saint’s name Yon. Its meaning is genuinely uncertain and the claim that it belonged to a Celtic patron saint of wooden shoemakers has no support anywhere. Dutch parents picked it up for its sound rather than its story, and it now sits beside Juna, Luna and Nova on the same chart. Two syllables, no consonant clusters, and it reads correctly in Dutch, English, Japanese and Korean.
- Origin: Japanese, Breton
- Meaning: Uncertain
- Pronunciation: YOO-nah
- Variations: Juna, Yoonah, Unna
- Namesakes: Yuna Kim, the South Korean figure skater and Olympic champion.
- Popularity: Yuna ranked No. 50 in the Netherlands in 2025, arriving alongside Juna in the same wave of short vowel-heavy names.
Zoe
Zoe means life in Greek, and it entered the naming stock because Hellenized Jews used it to translate the biblical Chawwah, the name we say as Eve. That makes Zoe and Eva the same idea in two languages. Byzantium supplied its early bearers, including an empress who ruled in her own right into her sixties. Dutch spelling keeps the diaeresis, Zoë, which signals that the final e is a separate syllable; drop it and English readers say ZOH. Either way it stays two syllables and three letters.
- Origin: Greek
- Meaning: Life
- Pronunciation: ZOH-ee
- Variations: Zoë, Zoey, Zoya, Zowie
- Namesakes: Zoe Porphyrogenita, the eleventh-century Byzantine empress.
- Popularity: Zoe, usually written Zoë in Dutch, ranked No. 16 in the Netherlands in 2025 on the SVB’s list, with the English spelling Zoey used far less often in the Netherlands.
