Would the name Adelheid be considered cultural appropriation?

[dinostars]

DH and I absolutely ADORE the name Adelheid with the nn Heidi. I am expecting our first baby, and she is a girl. I was just wondering if Adelheid was too foreign for England/America/Canada, or even considered cultural appropriation?? DH is from the U.S. and has close family in both America and Canada who we visit often. DH has a little bit of German heritage, but I don't have any (at least that I'm aware of.)

Also, we're very much aware of how outdated this name is, lol.

I was wondering if there was anyone out there, (Germans, possibly?) who could let me know their thoughts and feedback.

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

I think it’s a fab name! Do it.

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'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 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 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”

Germans don't care about "cultural appropriation"

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).

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 Most of my choices are probably considered horribly outdated in Germany, but I'll be raising an English baby so I don't much care.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.

Adelheid
Eidelweiss
Apartheid
Adel(f)

I read Aldehyde. Sounds a bit chemical.

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.

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!

Thanks for the help everyone!

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!

We called our daughter Adelaide, as it's the anglicised form of Adelheid. We wanted an old name with no religious connections and we found it a pretty name. We do shorten it to Ada pronounced close to "Adder" as my partners family is in Eastern Europe. Ada is an official name there, so she kind of has an English name and her second nationality name. We plan the same for any subsequent children, think like John/Janós.

As for cultural appropriation, that's a concept that I won't argue against here and now, because I'm aware it's one of the big progressive things now. Assuming you're both of Northern/Western European heritage, I can't see how there can be any claim of cultural appropriation, as ethnically and culturally we are all very similar and mixed. The English for example, are probably closer culturally to Dutch and Germans than they are to Welsh or Scots, or we would be had we not imposed ourselves on the rest of Britain, but I'm going well off topic here.

Basically, I can't imagine anyone caring in an offended sense. It's a lovely name, and I totally get why you'd give her a "full" name, but also have a preffered shortened option.

They are very old fashioned and have always been more Austrian or bavarian names. I think Adélaïde (err Google added the accents!) is much nicer and can still be shortened to Heidi.
I also know an Adeline which I think is nice. Or just call her Freya, nice scandi name.
Cultural appropriation is a load of utter bollocks but I guess just another thing for people to have an opinion on.

I know an English/Irish family who named their son Lars, simply because they liked the name. He’s not had any problems, aside from people being surprised that there’s no interesting family history behind his name.

Adelheid is a fabulous name. Do it!

Adelheid is great. I don’t think it’s cultural appropriation. Heidi comes from Adelheid anyway. I find Heidi too twee as a full name, but nice as a nickname.

Adelheid was a Nazi. There's even a film about her.

Do you say it like the place? Adelaide?

@ChaChaCha2012

Adelheid was a Nazi. There's even a film about her.

Which Adelheid is that? There’s lots of people called Adelheid, going back centuries.

Nobody will know how to pronounce it or spell it. I wouldn't.

Not a fan but don't think there are any issues with cultural appropriation (which is what you asked).