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Help[Opinions] Re: Gretchen
in reply to a message by Billina
I don't hate it but I think it's sort of weird and a bit unattractive and also slightly dated.
Why?
1. No one will ever be able to pronounce it the original way (the German pronunciation includes a sound that only a Native German speaker can produce and maybe a French speaker but not someone who grew up speaking only English. It is the CH and I can't even begin to explain how it sounds in German, but it is much softer than the English pronunciation). If this doesn't bother you that's fine, of course. Not all names need to be pronounced in the original way. I just find the English pronunciation to be very harsh.
2. No one uses this in Germany as a full name. Maybe 100 or 200 years ago you would have met some women named Gretchen but these days it is not used at all, not even as a nickname. And even hundreds of years ago it was usually short for Margarethe (Margarete) or Margaretha (Margareta) (all of these variants were used).
3. I think of Faust which features a main character named Gretchen (who has a rather horrible fate and whose full name is Margarethe). The term Gretchenfrage stems from this. Pretty much every German student has to read this in high school and it gives the name a sad association.
4. Greta is hugely common in Germany and people would always think it was a nickname. Also all Gret-names bore me because of Greta's immense popularity. Also Germans would be weirded out to meet a Gretchen, it is just not something people use and very much associated with Faust. I guess they'd get used to it, though, so that doesn't matter too much.
So yes, not a fan. But not the worst name in the world. You probably considered Greta nn Gretchen? Margareta?
Why?
1. No one will ever be able to pronounce it the original way (the German pronunciation includes a sound that only a Native German speaker can produce and maybe a French speaker but not someone who grew up speaking only English. It is the CH and I can't even begin to explain how it sounds in German, but it is much softer than the English pronunciation). If this doesn't bother you that's fine, of course. Not all names need to be pronounced in the original way. I just find the English pronunciation to be very harsh.
2. No one uses this in Germany as a full name. Maybe 100 or 200 years ago you would have met some women named Gretchen but these days it is not used at all, not even as a nickname. And even hundreds of years ago it was usually short for Margarethe (Margarete) or Margaretha (Margareta) (all of these variants were used).
3. I think of Faust which features a main character named Gretchen (who has a rather horrible fate and whose full name is Margarethe). The term Gretchenfrage stems from this. Pretty much every German student has to read this in high school and it gives the name a sad association.
4. Greta is hugely common in Germany and people would always think it was a nickname. Also all Gret-names bore me because of Greta's immense popularity. Also Germans would be weirded out to meet a Gretchen, it is just not something people use and very much associated with Faust. I guess they'd get used to it, though, so that doesn't matter too much.
So yes, not a fan. But not the worst name in the world. You probably considered Greta nn Gretchen? Margareta?
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Replies
Agreed
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I just looked up "Gretchenfrage" and it just reinforced my fascination with descriptive compound German words! I sometimes wonder if I should take steps to learn German, but I struggle with some of the pronunciation. (I'm better at French, but my French is getting rusty.)
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Sure, why not? It doesn't matter that you struggle with the pronunciation, your teacher will help you :) And I think everyone who learns a foreign language isn't able to imitate all of the sounds perfectly but can still be easily understood. It is not so important, an accent can be really charming and everyone has an accent :)
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Thank you, this is encouraging. Sometimes when I read or hear German, I recognize English's Germanic roots and the similarities between the two languages.
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