Auke (name)

Auke, pron. [ˈaukə], is a quite common West Frisian masculine given name. It seems to have been a diminutive form originally (-ke is one of the most common diminutive suffices in West Frisian), which developed from the historic form Auwe or Auwen. According to onomatologist Rienk de Haan, Auwe was a very reduced form of certain Germanic names, possibly starting with Alf- (meaning "elf", "supernatural" or "nature spirit").

In West Frisian, masculine given names can usually be adapted to equivalent feminine given names. In the case of Auke, this is accomplished by dropping the voiceless final syllable and adding a diminutive suffix in its place (in this case -je), resulting in Aukje. This is a very common feminine given name in Friesland.