re name 'Babette'

Hello everyone,

My grandmother came from a small farm village called Alkertshausen, Wurttemberg, which is near Stuttgart, Germany. Her name was Barbara Groener, but she was referred to in several places and also called herself 'Babette' . I know of no French background at this time.

Could anyone tell me what this French-sounding name for a German girl might signify??

Barbara Luckham
Ontario, Canada

Klaus Beutel...

Hello Barbara,

"Babette" may sound french, but in (old) Wuerttemberg this name was used
as some sort of nickname for "Barbara".
Other names for it were Baerbel, Babe, Baebele, Babettle...

Btw. D-74572 Alkertshausen is more than 100 km East of Stuttgart and
about 25 km North of Schwaebisch Hall
D-73095 Albershausen(which I first thought you meant)is about 30 km
"near" Stuttgart
Of course, I am aware of the difference between a Wuerttemberg- and a
Canadian- meant "near" :-)

Klaus Beutel

Hallo jeder,

Meine Großmutter kam aus einem kleinen Farm-Dorf genannt Alkertshausen, Wurttemberg, der in der Nähe von Stuttgart, Deutschland ist. Ihr Name war Barbara Groener, aber auf sie wurde in mehreren Plätzen verwiesen und nannte auch sich 'Babette'. Ich weiß von keinem französischen Hintergrund in dieser Zeit.

Konnte irgendjemand mir erzählen, was dieser Französisch erklingen laßende Name für ein deutsches Mädchen bedeuten könnte??

Danke,

Barbara Luckham
Ontario, Kanada

Bernd J. Kaup...

firstly: do not think of writing in german with the help of a
translating machine. The content of the german text does only very
slightly resemble to the english one and is taken for itself simply
inunderstandfable.

secondly: Babette might sound french to a person knowing french, for a
suebian it is simply sounding softer as Barbara and thus often used as
nickname for children, often even more softed by adding the minuitive
ending -le ( as Klaus Beutel already said).

mfg
bjk