Links from about the greenlandic names:
Minik
Minik (Minik)
Girls and boys name originally from Avanersuaq/Thule. The name has since spread to the rest of Greenland.
Meaning: Samuel Kleinschmidt defines the word minik in his Greenlandic dictionary (Den grønlandske ordbog fra 1871 p. 211), that minik is "1) Blubber, which has become a viscous glue-like substance (of which a thin layer has been exposed to the action of the air, fex. outside, or on the rim of, a blubber vessel); 2) earwax.)"
According to Jonathan Petersen’s ’ordbogêraĸ’ from 1951 p. 101 the word minik means ’hardened layer of fat’.
Kleinschmidt's next entry is: 'minippaa or minitserpaa, pastes the seams of the boat with minik.'
The name Minik might derive from these definitions. A significant portion of Greenlandic names have their origin from the daily life, some of them dealing with the household and its tools, as well as hunting life and its equipment. Minik might belong to this category, however a mainstream interpretation is Kleinscmidt's no. 2 definition.
Minik might also belong under the cathegory of babbling names, which is quite common in Greenlandic names. Minik could derive from the diminutive ending –mineq (inumineq: little piece of man fex.), with the ending remaining. (It would be the same as the German diminutive in Gretchen, where the name Gretel has been omitted in favor of -chen.) Several diminutive endings have found their way into the approved names list, names such as: -nguujuk, -nguaq, -kuluk, which all bear the meaning´dear little one’. Due to cooing with babies and constant use, consonants often weaken. A good example is the girls' name Natuk, which is believed to be a babbling form of inequnartoq (cute and sweet), with the following process: unoqunartoq -> uukunattuk -> nattuk -> natuk). Thus mineq can become minik.
The name is short and easy to pronounce, and this might be the reason why it is so popular. Also the fact that several books were published about the controversy concerning the boy Minik, who in 1897 was brought with his family to New York by Robert E. Peary, might have had an impact on the popularity of the name. According to statistics, only a handful of people (10 persons) bore the name Minik in the 50s, 60s and the 70s. But after the books were published, there was a marked increase of boys being named Minik, 57 persons in the 80s and 84 persons during the 90s.
Number of name bearers: Minik 152 (72 in DK), totalling 224, of which only 4 were girls.
and
Ivalo
The CPC has chosen the old spelling for Ivalo :)
Ivalu (Ivalo)
Girls name originally from the Thule region.
Meaning: sinew.
Number of bearers: Ivalu 128. Ivalo 103.
Linear Mode
