Talk:Gretchen
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Not archaic, but a pet name
[edit]In the article it is mentioned that in "Germany [the name] became commonly referred to as being archaic". In my opinion that is not the reason why the name isn't common in Germany. The real reason might be that "Gretchen" is not a name, but a pet name. The final syllable "-chen" signals a German Diminutive which is uncommon for given names to be found in a passport. Instead, a common name might therefore be Greta or Margarete. Undoubtetly, Gretchen came to prominence in Goethe's Faust. Possibly therefore, many German Americans, who read Faust, might have chosen the name for their daughters, because they believed it to be a common given name. However, though unusual, even in Germany a girl might have this as her (extravagant) given name. 78.52.144.222 (talk) 19:42, 30 January 2011 (UTC)
- What does an original researcher really know? de: claims at least three German girls have been christened Gretchen in 2011. As to the reason for the unfashion-ness, to my ears it rings like Faust or the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel. Yes, also the dimunitive. Even [i]Grete[/i] would be sort of outlandish. But please see the long list of actually given Gretes and Gretchens --88.74.129.241 (talk) 19:12, 3 November 2017 (UTC)
Grammatical Gender
[edit]Another weirdness about Gretchen is that in German, anything suffixed -chen become neuter: das Weibchen, das Häuschen, das Hänschen and das Gretchen. -chen invokes the image of a little thingy. In case of a name this isn't that obvious because names are normally used without article. --Johannes Rohr (talk) 06:46, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
Deminuitives in one language becoming proper names in a foreign language
[edit]"Gretchen" is the only case of a German deminuitive form of a name becoming a proper name in a foreign language.
This phenomenon seems to be much more frequent with Slavic names:
Katja/Katia (from Ekaterina), Sasha (from Alexandr/Alexandra), Kolja/Kolia (from Nikolai), Lena (from Elena), Zina (from Zinaida) all are commonly used as proper first names abroad, yet in Russian, they are strictly deminuitives, nobody has them in the passport. Is there a name for this phenomenon? --Johannes Rohr (talk) 09:55, 8 May 2020 (UTC)