Thread:LittleNaiad21/@comment-25819845-20160220182013/@comment-26869323-20160510135106

Most linguists look to Dutch sources, noting the extensive interaction between the colonial Dutch in New Netherland (now largely New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and western Connecticut) and the colonial English in New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and eastern Connecticut). The Dutch given names Jan ("John") and Kees ("Cornelius") were and still are common and the two sometimes are combined in a single name, e.g., Jan Kees de Jager. The word Yankee is a variation that could have referred to the Dutch Americans.[7]  However, as Americans of Dutch descent rejected the term as being derogatory, Americans in New England embraced it and adopted it for themselves.

Michael Quinion and Patrick Hanks argue that the term refers to the Dutch girl's name Janneke[9]  or Janke,[10]  which – owing to the Dutch pronunciation of J as the English Y – would be Anglicized as "Yankee". Quinion and Hanks posit it was "used as a nickname for a Dutch-speaking American in colonial times" and could have grown to include non-Dutch colonists as well.[9]

There is also the Dutch jonkheer, a term applied to the younger sons of the nobility who bear no title themselves. It may be translated as "young gentleman" or "esquire" and is the source of the toponym Yonkers; an etymologically equivalent term in German is Junker.