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Lenchen
by ADT
9/20/2005, 6:02 PM
I'm reading Sheila Watson's 'The Double Hook' - what can you tell me about the F name Lenchen ?Thanks.

This message was edited 9/20/2005, 6:03 PM

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- Chrisell   +7
9/20/2005, 6:06 PM
It looks very much like it's a German pet name, a la Gretchen, Madchen, Jochen etc. A best guess would be that it's a pet form of Lena, but there's a few other names it could be a pet name for.Does a German origin make sense in the context of the book?
♦ Chrisell ♦All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

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- Satu (_satu_)
9/28/2005, 1:05 PM
Hi Chrisell,-chen is a diminutive ending in German and it works for girls (Gretchen, Lieschen, Lenchen) and boys (Hänschen, Kläuschen), but the name Jochen does not belong to that group. Here, the -chen-ending sounds different. It's just a short form of Joachim.By the way - Mädchen isn't used as a given name in Germany at all. It's just a vocabulary word for "girl"./ Satuhttp://www.nordicnames.de/
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- ADT   +5
9/20/2005, 6:18 PM
Not at all. It's Canadian literature and the novel is set in Canada - no references to Germany whatsoever. It was first published in 1959 if that has any significance.But, thanks. :)
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- Chrisell   +4
9/20/2005, 6:42 PM
Hmm . . . that doesn't necessarily mean there wouldn't be the odd German name. I'll have a look into it when I have time and see whether anything turns up.
♦ Chrisell ♦All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.

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- Chrisell   +3
9/20/2005, 6:47 PM
Ooh, look what I found . . .My hunch was pretty close: it's a German nickname for Helenahttp://www.geocities.com/jesusib/Helena.htmlHaving a princess known as Lenchen *might* explain why an unusual German name could have found its way into a more mainstream naming pool. It's tenuous, but that's the best I can come up with!
♦ Chrisell ♦All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
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- Andy ;—) (guest)   +2
9/20/2005, 10:15 PM
It can be from MAGDALENA or HELENA. (nt) Andy ;—)
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- Chrisell   +1
9/20/2005, 10:33 PM
CoolI suspected it'd work for Magdalena too, but I couldn't find any evidence for it so I didn't want to say it outright :-)
♦ Chrisell ♦All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. - J.R.R. Tolkien.
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- ADT (guest)
9/21/2005, 11:28 AM
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU.
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