User:Dioskorides/sandbox 2
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Joseph Gauss -
Sophie Gauss née Erythropel
(1818–1883)
Joseph's wife -
Wilhelmina Gauss -
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Eugene Gauss -
Henrietta Gauss née Fawcett
(1817–1909)
Eugene's wife -
William Gauss -
Luise Gauss née Fallenstein
(1813–1883)
William's wife -
Therese Gauss -
Constantin Staufenau
(1809–1886)
Therese's husband
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Joseph Gauss -
Wilhelmina Gauss
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Eugene Gauss
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William Gauss
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Therese Gauss
Failed verification tag on the children names: I found no evidence of Wilhelm being called William, and Eugene's birth name is not Eugen. I also have doubts on who was nicknamed Minna: the second wife or the daughter?
failed verification|date=June 2024|reason=The names are likely incorrect: the Science article refers to the second child as Wilhelm, and Dunnington also says he was known as Wilhelm the whole life. Where does William come from? Minna seems to be the nickname of the child from the first wife rather than the one of the second wife. Finally the German name of Eugene does not seem to be Eugen, rather Peter Samuel Marius Eugenius per Dunnington
I see, one of the most difficult Wikipedia problems is pursuing us, too: the "correct names". There has already been a great discussion on the correct writing of Gauss/Gauß (see Talk pages). Now the Christian names.
In general, we have to distinguish a. the Christian names of the birth registration, b. the usual naming with only one or two of them, c. the calling with pet names, d. other adopted names by reason of emigration or adoption of pseudonyms, e. spelling variants of these names. Now: What is a "correct" or "incorrect" name? In my opinion a name is incorrect, if it has never been used or a variant is given that has never been written. But with this, we have a considerable variety of "correct" names.
Now to the Gauss children. Dunnington gives the full collection of their Christian names on page 102. All the last three children have four first names, and Dunnington gives their common used names Therese, Wilhelm, and Eugene. I don't know why he wrote Eugene instead of Eugen; of course, these names were used with German pronounciation. I presume that Dunnington was not aware of the very different pronounciation of Eugene and Eugen, and the orthographical similarity is much greater than between Wilhelm and William, so he didn't take care of it, so this is a simple mistake of Dunnington (and of Cajory, who gives Theresa as another variant). But when both sons had emigrated to the U.S., they used the English version Eugene and William of their first names. Look here or here, obviously both of them were named Eugene and William in the U.S.
In Germany, the calling name "Eugen" was used as the short and common variant of the Greek-Latin "Eugenius", given to him with the birth registration, but the Latin suffix -us (or: -ius) is usually omitted in German common use. Please confer a letter from C.F.Gauss to his son (9 August 1846) as "Lieber Eugen" (= Dear Eugen), but addressed to "Mr. Eugene Gauss": [1]
"Wilhelm" was the only common name for the last son, you can find in German literature and in the letters of his siblings. Staying in Germany, he signed letters to his father with "Wilhelm Gauß" (1 June 1830) [2], "C.W. Gauß" (12 Sept. 1831) [3], and "CWGauß" (23 June 1832) [4]. In letters to his mother he signed "Wilhelm Gauß" (22 June 1830) [5], and to his grandmother "W. Gauß" (27 August 1830) [6]. Staying in America, he used "Charles William Gauss" (10 July 1838) [7], "Charles W: Gauss" (13 Jan. 1839) [8], and "Charles Wm Gauss" (19 Nov. 1841) [9]. The inscription of his grave monument shows "Charles W. Gauss". This may indicate that his American calling name was rather Charles than William, but I don't have any scientific publication for it.
"Wilhelmine" was a common 19th-century girl's name, as nickname mostly "Minna". Unfortunately both Wilhelmine Gauss and her stepmother had the same first name and used the same nickname (e.g. in their letters), so "Minna Gauss" is ambiguous. Johanna Gauss' nickname was "Hanchen", not mentioned in the text. I propose, we leave all nicknames from the text.
So once more: what are the "correct" names? I don't no, and I think, Dunnigton and Cajori had the same problem. They had to decide, and we have to decide what may be the best solution. The actual problem is that the Gauss family members did not use their names according to the Wikipedia regulations.
Even Gauss' name causes problems, look at his first English orbituary: [10]; "Charles Frederick Gauss" had already be used by William in his letter from 13 Jan. 1839). You can find another English translation of "Carl Friedrich Gauss" here: [11]; it is not a misprint, we find this variant three limes in the text. This are all reliable sources according to the Wikipedia regulations, but which publication is actually correct: Dunnington, Cajori, the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astonomical Society, or The American Mathematical Monthly? I think, the calling name for Gauss used in his family is a more interesting information: Carl or Friedrich? Both his wives addressed him Carl: here and here, but unfortunately I have no publication where this is stated.
If you have a better solution for this problem than mine, please tell me, I will change it soon.