German Girl Names

This is a rarely heard feminization of the rarely heard Roland.

There are not one but two notable modern women with this name: journalist Christiane Amanpour and physician/author Christiane Northrup. In Germany, the pronunciation is kris-tee-AH-na while in France, it's kris-tee-AHN — and in the U.S., there's sure to be confusion. While Christiane is not stylish, it's a strong, attractive, unusual-though-familiar name.

Variant of Julianne

German diminutive of Katherine

See LOUISE.

Feminine spin on Arnold that received a brief flurry of use in the early 1990s.

While Ilise is unusual, the E version is more attractive.

We think the more spelling, Lorelei, works better.

The German short form Liesa is usually pronounced lee-za, but most people in America will say it like Lisa -- or, just to annoy you, Liza.

Nein.