View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Facts] Re: Roswitha/Sette
in reply to a message by JHK
I just came across an instance of Sette for Elisabeth, which seems more likely than Roswitha. However, Sette's mother was Elisabeth "Betche" and I'm not sure if she was named after her mother or not.To go along with what you've just described, my family is from Lampertheim in Hesse and quite a few of them have nicknames that aren't obvious that they come from their given names. I have a great great aunt Margarete who went by Maje and a great great aunt Christina who went by Dina, and the list goes on.Thanks for the reply, it has definitely given me something to consider. :)"It's the job that is never started that takes the longest to finish." - J.R.R. TolkienVOTE on my Name List
http://babynames.com/namelist/9415432
vote up1vote down

Replies

Now Elisabeth --> Sette makes more sense to my ears than Roswitha --> Sette would. If her mother's name was Elisabeth, could that be the reason for her only to be known as Sette? It does make sense to me: They share a pretty common name, you need to distinguish the two, so they get different nicknames...

This message was edited 10/28/2010, 12:32 PM

vote up1vote down
Yes, it makes sense to me too. Elisabeth "Betche" had a sister Margarete "Gretche" and Betche's husband was Christian. Betche had a daughter named Margarete "Maje" and a daughter named Christina "Dina", so I'm thinking Elisabeth "Sette" is likely.

This message was edited 10/28/2010, 12:35 PM

vote up1vote down
SETTE is not listed in W. Seibicke's Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch. This makes it rather unlikely that Sette is or was actually used as a registered given name.
Seibicke has SETTCHEN, though: pet form of Lisette. And this makes sense to me and could well be the missing link to Elisabeth. Of course Lisette is a French variant of Elisabeth, but the German pronunciation lee-zeh-teh is possible and would lead to Sette (zeh-teh).
Roswitha as the origin of Sette seems very unlikely to me.
vote up1vote down