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Re: Popularity of Lorelei in German-Speaking Countries?
Loreley has never (see below) been used as a personal name in Germany. It's the name of a slate rock on the river Rhine (near St. Goarshausen). It means something like "slate rock as a lookout". This name has been misinterpreted following the name LORE, and thus the whole story came up: It was Brentano who first wrote (down) the legend of the beautiful girl with the long blond hair. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LoreleiWilfried Seibicke* lists one (!) person in Germany bearing the name LORELEY (born in 1993):Loreley w, Name eines Schieferfelsens am rechten Rheinufer oberhalb von St. Goarshausen (Bedeutung etwa ‘Schieferfelsen, von dem man Ausschau hält’); „[d]ie junge, erst von Clemens Brentano (Ballade von der Lore Lay) geschaffene und dann von Eichendorff, Heine u. a. gestaltete Sage von der Hexe oder Fee Loreley beruht auf einer romantischen Umdeutung des Namens in Anlehnung an den Frauennamen Lore,“ BERGER (s.u.) 172; auch ital. (DE FELICE 1992, 237f.)
Bel.: Konstanz 1993 FVN, Ztg.
BERGER, Dieter: „Geographische Namen in Deutschland“, Mannheim u.a. 1993 (= Duden-Taschenbuch 25)(Translation see above)*Wilfried Seibicke: Historisches Deutsches Vornamenbuch I-IV, 2000 ff.
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