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I'd rather be a Heidi. I like them both, though Heidi has that literary flair, and a light, happiness to it that I love.

Gretchen is the worst name imaginable!!! Anything, ANYTHING is better than Gretchen! I don't know how anyone could lump it in with Heidi which is fresh, pretty and different.

I like Gretchen more than Heidi, but I think Heidi would be easier to live with in the United States. Gretchen is too cutesy with the German pronunciation I think, but I don't mind it's "ugliness" in English. Heidi is just all around pretty cutesy and that doesn't appeal to me.

I like Heidi and I'm indifferent to Gretchen.

I like them both.

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Being a Heidi, I am biased towards my own name. I have never felt it was stuffy, but rather people seem to think it fresh and cute. But, it still has that grounded feel that means it sounds like and adult name despite the 'i' ending.

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Gretchen is one of those spunky names that you don't hear often. I happen to really like it. It's almost hipster on a child and chic on an adult. It has a lot more frumpiness than Heidi does, but I think Gretchen would be more likely to land on a kid's birth certificate today than Heidi would.

While I think Gretchen is a pretty cool name, Heidi is probably the easier one to bear. Gretchen can come across as a little harsh.

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Gretchen! Love love love it. I would call my daughter Gretchen, but it's the name of a good friend of mine so might seem odd. Maybe someday.

I prefer Gretchen.

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But I love German names. And old fashion German names are my style. However, I live in a very German populated area and have several friends with the names Heidi and Gretchen. That's the biggest thing that would keep me from using one of those names.

Gretchen is inseparable from 'wretched' in my head. But I love Heidi. And a close friend is considering it for her baby for fall, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I think both are horrible... But Heidi is a bit less horrible...^^

I prefer Gretel or Grethe to Gretchen in an English-speaking environment. In German, probably Gretchen.

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I've known so many Heidi people (none of them German, funnily enough) that my eyes just glaze over. It's an OK name, nicer than Adele etc, but it doesn't stand out.

I actually really quite like Heidi, it's not a name that I would use because I find it too juvenile for an adult but it's a cute nickname for Adelaide / Adelheid if you don't want to contribute to the masses of Addies. I tried to convince my parents to name our dog Heidi many years ago.

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I love Greta, but Gretchen has "retch" right in it. It's not appealing in the least.

I don't really like either one, but Heidi is better than Gretchen by a lot.

I definitely prefer Heidi. Gretchen is too old fashioned and reminds me of that stupid character from "Faust". Besides I think it only works as a nn for Margarete.

Heidi is cute. Gretchen sounds really childish to me as a fn.

About a year or so ago, Adelheid nn Heidi was one of my favorite names. I thought Heidi was so, so sweet.

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Now, I still like both Adelheid and Heidi, but they've been put on the backburner for a time. They've lost some of their dazzle and luster over time, for me.

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Gretchen is a name that I used to think was extremely ugly and "nerdy", but lately it's actually grown on me a lot. I'm not even sure why, but this name that used to remind me of guttural retching suddenly sounds sweetly fairytale-like to my ears.

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Right now I prefer Gretchen to Heidi, but both are very nice names.

I prefer Gretchen. I don't have such a strong image attached to it like I do with Heidi, and IMO does not sound as harsh. Heidi brings to mind a very strong personality, a dominant or domineering person - a smart and reliable one, a leader, a heroine, a matron. Probably that's influenced by a blonde, athletic, extroverted Heidi I once knew. I have trouble picturing a Heidi ever being sensitive or delicate - it seems too charactery, not versatile enough. Gretchen is just a modest and plain name that could be any girl or woman, to me, and it sounds softer (I think of it as gret-shen, not gretch-en).

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Heidi's sisters are Beth and Jean and Amy, Gretchen's are Bridget and Rachel and Marion.

I like Gretchen. Heidi is too sporty and modern for me - Gretchen is doll-like, fairytale-child-kept-in-rags charming. Also it gets Greta and Gretel, other Gret-names I like.

Gretchen. It's a strong, no-nonsense name. It comes from Margaret. I also think that Heidi sounds somewhat tacky.

I prefer Gretchen more even though I'm not fond of any of them. I much prefer Greta over Gretchen

I'm not a huge fan of either, but I think I like Heidi better. It's softer. Gretchen sounds a little like a mean stepsister (NO offense to all the Gretchen's out there!) maybe because it reminds me of "wretch"?