[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Elisabeth and Luise

[Günther Böhm]

>There appears to be a considerable frequency of interchangeability between the given names of Elisabeth and Luise in German Lutheran church records from Poland.
>  
>
>For example, a birth record might indicate the child's name as being Elisabeth but in a death record it might be recorded as Luise.  This occurs frequently enough to make one believe there is some sort of connection between the two names.
>Does anyone have a likely explanation for this?
>
Hello John,
yes, though it sounds a bit curious. Common German nicknames for 
Elisabeth were Elise or Liesel which sound very similar to Louise 
(German spelling Luise).

In turn, Louise is actually the female version of Louis (Louis IX, king 
of France), originally derived from the Frankonian king Chlodwig (in 
German Ludwig). Thus they mixed up the names of two completely different 
saints (Louise de Marillac, the founder of the "Ladies of Charity", and 
Elizabeth [Isabella] of Portugal resp. her great-aunt, Elizabeth of 
Hungary).

Guenther
of Hilden, Germany