Character naming

[naomikritzer]

Does anyone know how the name "Heike" is pronounced? I'd like a Germanic feminine variant on Henry. I'm also toying with Harriet and have her go by Harry, but I think I'd prefer a female name, or a more-often-used-as-a-female-nickname name.

The character is an American of German ancestry.

Comments

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

http://www.behindthename.com/comment/search.php?terms=heike
has a comment:
"This is a neat German name, pronounced "Hi-kah".
and the main link at:
http://www.behindthename.com/php/view.php?name=heike
says it is German, Frisian or Dutch
and has a link to a ton of related names

[fancythat2.livejournal.com]

Henrietta, Hendrika, Henriette, Henrika (Pet names) Rietta, Hennie, Hettie.

Harriete, Harietta, Hariette, Harrietta, Harriette (Pet Names) Hatti, Hattie, Hatty.

Sorry, I can't help you with Heike, I couldn't find it in any of my baby name books.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Hike-ah.

(small things I remember from five years of German in school)

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

Common rule of thumb for German: E's at the ends of words are pronounced with an uh/ah sound. Example: Sabine = suh-been-uh


And when you have two vowels like the i and the e together, the second usually has the dominant sound. Heiss = highss Wiener = veener

[(Anonymous)]

I had a relative with the Yiddish name pronounced CHAI-kee, with "Ch" as in Chanukah. In actual Yiddish, not Yiddish in English context, it might have been pronounced CHAI-keh. I don't recal how we transliterated her name, probably Chaike.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I would have guessed like 'Heidi' but High-ka sounds good.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

As a Heikkinen (Finnish version Henry/Henrick/Hender-son), of course, my guess is all out there, as our last name is pronounced Heyk (Like the word hey!)-kin-en. So I was thinking Hey-ki.