My last post featuring my co-worker Hannelore reminded me that I wanted to write something about how crazy, old-fashioned and, one might argue, horrible many German names are. I don’t know what the 10 most common names are, but here is a list of 10 of the craziest/funniest/worst German names I have encountered.
10. Hannelore. Sounds like it comes out of a Harry Potter book.
9. Wolfgang. Incredibly common among men. I still find it scary and evocative of wolves every time I hear it.
8. Norbert. I really hope parents aren’t still naming their sons this.
7. Klaus. Scares and intimidates me, for some reason.
6. Winfried. Another name right out of the 19th Century, at the latest.
5. Gerlinde. Not even sure if this is a man’s or a woman’s name, but it reminds me of a character in Wicked.
4. Burkhardt. How is this not a last name?!
3. Hartmut/Hartfrid/Hartwig. Variations on the Insurance Capital of the World?
2. Waltraut. My very sweet and interesting upstairs neighbor at my fall sublet had this name, which sounds to me like a town in the Catskills. It is a woman’s name, btw.
1. Mechthild. I’ve only seen this name once–it’s also a woman’s name, if you can believe it! Sounds to me like a food additive you would rather not ingest.
For good measure–here a few common German names that I find actually quite pleasing: Johannes, Astrid, Coralie, Kerstin (an improvement over Kristen/-in, I think).
13 February 2009 at 4:56 pm
This was great.