Contrary to a local linguistic tradition, the name Ryke does not have a long “e” sound at the end of it.

It’s pronounced "Rike", like Bike.

This comes straight from the mouth of Henry Ryke, the son of John Ryke, who came to Muskegon from the Netherlands in 1915 and founded Ryke’s Bakery in the depths of the Depression.

“I’ve heard it both ways all my life, and people still come up and ask the right way to say it,” he says.

As he explains: “It’s an old Dutch interpretation. In the Dutch, the ‘e’ would become an ‘a’ and you would say ‘ry-kah.’

But nobody says, ‘VanDyk-ee.”

More Information

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• More History
• Sanitary Dairy History
• Ryke’s: Say It Right, Like "Bike"