Ottilie

Ottilie and its diminutive Ottiline are a pair of names heard among the British upper crust, but have rarely been seen here since the 1880's. Though it has German roots via Otto, Ottilie has a distinctively delicate French feel.

Ottilie does have a few cultural references: She is a key character in Goethe's "Elective Affinities," Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a poem called "To Ottilie," Franz Kafka had a sister named Ottilie, and it is the name of the protagonist in the John Wyndom sci-fi story "Random Quest."

Probably the best known Ottilie is the German journalist, abolitionist and feminist Ottilie Assing, who had a long involvement with fellow abolitionist Frederic Douglass.

Some attractive Ottilie relatives: Ottoline, Ottilia and Odile. And Ottilie has the adorable nicknames of Lottie and Tillie.