Ottilie

Ottilie is a female given name stemming from the medieval German boy's name Otto and meaning "riches", "wealth" or "prosperity"and have a lot of boyfriends It has never become very popular in modern culture and has remained very low on popularity rankings only reaching its peak in 1880 when it reached almost 600th position in the US.^[1] Ottilie is a much more common first name in German-speaking countries.^[2]

Ottilie was the name given to the female protagonist in John Wyndham's science fiction story "Random Quest" later made into a film "Quest for Love", starring Joan Collins as Ottilie, Tom Bell, Denholm Elliott and Laurence Naismith. The story is about a scientist, Colin Trafford, who crosses into a parallel world after a scientific demonstration goes wrong. He finds himself married to Ottilie Harshom, falls in love with her, and then desperately looks for her when he returns to his own world - the "quest" of the title.

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a poem called "To Ottilie".^[3]

Ottilie is one of the four principal characters in the novel Elective Affinities by Goethe. The term elective affinities was taken from 18th century chemistry, and describes how attractive forces between different atoms dictate their reactions.^[4] In the story, Eduard, Charlotte, the Captain, and Ottilie are assembled in a mansion on Eduard's estate in the country. In keeping with its title, the characters are isolated from extraneous influences and allowed to react with each other.

There is a character called Ottilie in one of Truman Capote's stories, 'House Of Flowers' published in 1958 and later adapted into a musical.

Ottilie is a variant of Odile. Ottilia and Ottoline are both variants of Ottilie.

• Ottilie Assing, a German journalist.
• Ottilie Patterson, a Northern Irish jazz singer who recorded in the late 1950s and early 1960s with Chris Barber.
• Ottilie Abrahams, a Nambian activist.
• Ottilie Klimek, an American serial killer.
• Ottilie Louise Fresco, a Dutch scientist.
• Ottilie Metzger, a German opera singer.
• Ottilie Sutro, an American pianist.
• Ottilie Losch, an Austrian dancer and choreographer who lived and worked in the United States and United Kingdom.
• Ottilie Fleischer, a German athlete.
• Ottilie Davidová, the youngest of Franz Kafka's three sisters.
• Ottilie Wildermuth, a German writer.
• Ottilie Godefroy, an Austrian actress who performed under the name Tilla Durieux.
• Ottilia Borbáth, a Romanian actress.
• Ottilie von Katzenelnbogen, a German aristocrat.
• Ottilia Carolina Kuhlman, a Swedish actress.
• Ottilia Littmarck, a Swedish actress and director.
• Ottoline Leyser, a British plant biologist.
• Lady Ottoline Morrell, an English society hostess.

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