John: No English equivalent for Adelheid? Shame on you. Try Adelaide. I have long been thinking about writing a msg about German nicknames - Germans love them - and they seem to confuse many on the list. Coming soon - as soon as I get a few Microsoft-caused computer problems straightened out. Jane
JANE E SWAN
jeswansong@earthlink.net
EarthLink Revolves Around You.
I stand corrected Jane but I thought Adelaide was merely a French variant, similar to Adele? And where does Adeline fit in? Ah well, they say the French were German once upon a time, so what comes around probably goes around - or is it what goes around comes around? Frank = Frenchie? (nah!)
You know I should know better than to say there is no English equivalent to anything anymore, as everything eventually finds its way into our utterly impressionable (and hopeless) Anglo vocabulary. If it's not here already, just give it enough time. Then again, look at the lingual assault taking place upon European shores. Wasn't it Klaus Stahl who once asked the list: "Handy! Do you know this word?" Denglish! Ah!
Which brings us to the next question: is that name still in use? I thought they removed it at some point, like shortly after the turn of the century, or along with liquor during the Prohibition years. Actually I had a great aunt named Addie, but she was adelaiding way before my time.
Names .. u gotta luv 'em. I'm still trying to figure how they ever got Dick from Richard. More than likely a spin off of Rick (like Bill is from Will and thus from William), but it still remains a true "three breach reach" ... if you get my drift.
I'll look forward to your nick post, only be careful as nicknames often spill into "pet" names and countless spelling variants, and in that spiral, there may be no end in sight - be it in German or English.
Case in point: Elizabeth | Elisabeth
Common nicks: Babbie, Babette, Babs, Belle, Bess, Besse, Bessie, Bet, Beta, Beth, Bethany, Bethia, Bethinia, Bethy, Bets, Betsy, Bette, Bettina, Betty, Biffy, Bitsy, Buffy, Ebby, Eli, Elisa, Elise, Eliz, Eliza, Ella, Elle, Ellie, Elly, Elsa, Else, Elsie, Esbeth, Ilsa, Ilsie, Leeza, Leisa, Libbie, Libby, Lil, Lilly, Lillie, Lis, Lisa, Lisbeth, Lise, Lissa, Lissy, Liz, Liza, Lizbeth, Lizza, Lizzie, Lizzy, Sabby, Tettie, Tetty, Veta, etc.
Then there's really unusual ones like Boe, Bep, Betster, Bettyo, Bibster, Biffster, Elib, Izzy, Libster, Liddy, Lillybet, Lit, Lizzard, Yiddabet, etc.
If you use modern nickname generating rules you might be tempted to include names like Bethmeister, Bethzilla, Ellinator, Lizbutt, Lizinator, Lizmeister, Lizilla, Lizzibear, Lizzibee, etc. Only those sound like the ones you'd find on internet chat rooms. 
And no one has yet to fully account for those heavy metal umlauts [er �ml�uts] as used by Blue �yster Cult and Mot�rhead and M�tley Cr�e. So maybe Els� and L�lli� and B�e ought to be included likewise. Quick question: is Die �rzte not correct German orthography? If so, who can blame the heavy metal monsters! [and it's hard to argue Don't Fear The Reaper isn't kind of catchy] 
Jb
PS. If you want to run your MS/PC "issues" by me offline, feel free to as I know my way around those OS's (and beastly rigs in general) pretty well. Don't tell me you're running Vista already! 