Would the name Adelheid be considered cultural appropriation?

Also, when she's older, if she feels Heidi is a little girl nickname, she can go by Adel, which feels a bit more grownup.

No! Adel means Nobility!

But I agree that Adelheid is an incredibly ugly and old fashioned name!

Ooh, I hadn’t heard of Adelheid before - I really like it! It’s so refreshing after the unstoppable onslaught of frilly, delicate girls’ names we’re seeing at the moment. It has a beautiful gentleness to it - a lovely resonance to the sound when said out loud. And Heidi is a nice NN. Cultural appropriation is not relevant here, so you can use it with a clear conscience. And please ignore PPs who are trying to spoil it for you. I’d be excited to meet a little Adelheid. And I’d imagine an adult Adelheid to be an intelligent, educated, independent and interesting woman. Go for it!

Call your daughter whatever you want to OP and ignore the very unpleasant posters who come out from under the woodpile any time someone mentions a name differing from the usual boring and conventional names people seem to think are the only options in the UK.

I read Aldehyde. Sounds a bit chemical.

Adelheid
Eidelweiss
Apartheid
Adel(f)

Adelheid is lovely, I have German heritage and "old-fashioned Germanic names" are one of my fave genres! Most of my choices are probably considered horribly outdated in Germany, but I'll be raising an English baby so I don't much care.

Re: appropriation, I agree with previous posters that the key is whether it's taken from a culture that has been oppressed (often in the form of colonisation, but also slavery or other crimes / exploitation) by a dominant one, and you as the namer are part of that dominant culture. That definitely isn't the case for Germany, so I'd say have at it.

Germanic names are fantastic imo, so little of that flowery flounciness that is everywhere these days.

I like the name, but I do find it really weird that you give a child a name from a culture you have no real ties with

Yes, it's just SO weird to like the sound of a name (I'm being sarcastic).

Germans don't care about "cultural appropriation"

I’m from Scotland originally and the heid part actually makes me think of “hide” too, like animal hide - “a dull hide” but if I didn’t know know the name already I’d think it was “ayd-ull-heed”

I like the name, but I do find it really weird that you give a child a name from a culture you have no real ties with. Heidi is a bit different because it's quite common, but I imagine Adelheid will be forever explaining that no, she's not German.

I'm Scottish and heid is Scots for head, pronounced heed. So it just reads Adelheed to me
That’s how I read it too. Not sure whether it’s just Scottish people or whether everyone would.

I knew a girl called Heidi, short for Adelheid - and, in the sixth form, after an unfortunate experience with cider, she was forever known as Alcoheid. This has always stuck with me! Like Heidi though.

I think it’s a fab name! Do it.

Hope you are not in Scotland. It means something different here.

No worries about cultural appropriation. Growing up in Northern Germany, it was a big trend for German families to choose 'exotic', foreign names for their kids. There was a more recent trend to adopt American sounding names - you will find a lot of 20 something Kevins and Justins in Germany so just think of it as getting your own back! 😂

The name wouldn't be my choice as, personally, it sounds dated and Heidi has its own connotations for anyone of my age who grew up with the cartoon. Not negative, but the name is forever associated with a little girl who spent her days getting into adventures running around the Alps. I would wonder how one would grow into the name, but if you're in the UK or US, I guess that's irrelevant.

Cultural appropriation aside...WHY would you do this to a child?!

Adelheid is such an ugly sounding name. Like Gertrude, Bertha or Helga. I actually knew a Trudie growing up, who as an adult woman would burst into tears whenever someone used her full name Gertrude.

Heidi is fine and I know lots of adult Heidis. But Adelheid is terrible.

I absolutely love Heidi!
My son has a longer name, but only goes by his NN. Most people don’t realise his NN isn’t his name.
Go for the name you love x

No I don't think so it's more likely people will think it's an ugly name, I'd go for Heidi instead as it's much nicer. Both are considered very old fashioned in Germany.

Why are you even considering nonsense such as "cultural appropriation" - whatever that is?

Most western names have Latin/Germanic/Celtic roots, and most people aren't even aware of it.

Call her whatever you want.

My 84 year old grandma is called Adelheid but goes by the name of Heidi. Agree the formal name is old fashioned but doesn’t feel like cultural appropriation to me!
Also PP is right that usually cultural appropriation is when a privileged race is appropriating the culture from a less privileged race- at least that’s always been my understanding.

My name is Jewish and I am not but I'm pretty sure it's not seen as cultural appropriation. There's a relatively strong Germanic influence on the English language, we are closer to our Teutonic cousins than we may think! That said, I prefer Heidi. I know a grown up Heidi and I don't think the name is at all twee.

I think cultural appropriation is a ridiculous concept, so go for it.

I agree - go with Heidi. It's a lovely name for child or adult.