No day goes by without an opportunity for me to educate well-meaning folks on the pronunciation of the Dutch letter IJ. Although many people have told me on several occasions that I’m stubborn and that there is a reason someone can change their name here in the US, I chose not to….I actually really gave it some thought when I became a US citizen and had to make a conscious choice but choose to stick with it….
My name was an anomaly when I grew up (which I sometimes liked a lot, and sometimes did not given the amount of words it rhymed with…). The only other Stijn anyone had ever heard of was the poet Stijn Streuvels …
But now that I have practical reasons to change it, after moving to the US, the masses actually disagree with the change. The name has never been more popular in the Netherlands. It even made the top 10 last year…So I’ll just stick with it a bit longer and be one of the few Stijn’s of an older generation that all my younger namesakes can refer too…
Now you also know how the name of this Blog was chosen as another attempt to spread the letter IJ acceptance.