My name Tinka

I started life being called Christine. Soon to be given the nickname Tinka which followed me all through school. My dad often just called me Teen. I became Chris after meeting and marrying my second husband. He said Tinka was a silly name and he wasn't calling me that. Yes, I still married him and it lasted 20 years, but that's another story. My son who would never call me Chris, pointed out that Chris is a boy's name. I did eventually get a divorce and somewhere along the line I became used to identifying myself as Christine.

I looked into the origin of the name Tinka. I think it was really my grandfather, who came from Bulgaria, that started calling me Tinka. Originally he may have called me Katinka which was their version of Katherine and my grandmother's name. Katinka got shortened to Tinka...This discussion brings to mind that my grandmother's sister had a daughter named Tilka.

My mother once mentioned that she would have named me Vicki. I was raised Catholic. I guess it was customary to name children after a saint. Are there any St. Vicki's?

Also:Native Americans have SBtinka which means magical dancer. And, the girl's name Tinka is a variant of Celeste (Latin), and the meaning of Tinka is "heavenly".

Today, with the popularity of the name Bella, I guess I could have been called TinkaBella.


1/28/2012: New information on the name Tinka.  I guess it is a common name in Bulgaria. The feminine names "Tinka" and "Tina" are used in Bulgaria, "Tinka" is a Bulgarian name, while Tina is international. In Bulgaria "Tinka" and "Tina" are often thought as abbreviations respectively of "Latinka" and the originated name from "Latinka" - "Latina". "Latinka" is the Bulgarian word for the flower "nasturtium". That is why "Latinka" and "Latina" have a nameday on Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) - the day of the flowers and willows (the names of the other trees also have a nameday).