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What’s In A Name?

SCHIJNS

Skynz? Shizns? Shijens? Skijenz? Shins?

Admittedly, “Schijns” is a difficult name to pronounce correctly the first time. 

So the way I like to hear it, and the way our family says it, is “Skynz” or “Skines”.  The SCH is hard, like “school”, not soft like “Schultz” or “Schmidt”. And the “ij” is a common Dutch letter combination, pronounced “Y”. If you write “ij” in cursive, you’ll see how it is identical to “y” when written out. Do not pronounce the J. If it was good enough for Rembrandt (van Rijn), it’s good enough for me – although it would be simpler if the J simply wasn’t there!

Schijns is a unique Dutch name; as far as I can tell, anyone in the world named Schijns is a relative of mine. And in North America, we don’t ever say it properly anyways – the “CH” is more guttural in Dutch!