The reason that Rapunzel’s name is a kind of lettuce is because in the Brothers’ Grimm version of the story, lettuce is kind of the whole reason that shit gets fucked up.
OK, so, there’s this couple, and they live in Germany in a house which happens to be on a plot of land next to a witch’s walled garden, which presumably means that they got it on a really good real estate deal. The witch is named Dame Gothel (sounding familiar yet?) and she’s kind of obsessed with her garden. Like, you just know that this woman is an avid subscriber to every single gardening magazine ever, and she probably has posters of Alan Titchmarsh in all of her good rooms.
Anyway, the woman who lives next door to Dame Gothel is pregnant, and she’s suffering from some absolutely chronic cravings. However, because this is a very old fairytale, she’s not craving ice cream or spray cheese. No, she’s craving lettuce. Unfortunately for the woman, the only lettuce within a 400 mile radius is the rapunzel plant (you may know it better as lamb’s lettuce, or valerianella locusta if you’re a total nerd) growing in her witchy neighbour’s garden. Now, most of us would probably balk at the idea of sneaking into the prized garden of your friendly neighbourhood witch, but not this woman! Although also she’s ridiculously pregnant, so she manages to convince her husband to do it instead, and he climbs over the wall and steals her a huge hunk of lettuce. The woman immediately eats it all in one giant mouthful, because she’s pregnant, OK, and as soon as she’s swallowed it, she asks for more.
Her husband, clearly being something of a pushover, agrees to once more brave certain death by stealing the witch’s lettuce, and as he’s climbing the wall with his stolen salad, Dame Gothel catches him. She’s all “are you seriously stealing my lettuce right now? Alan Titchmarsh would never. I should turn you into a frog or something,” and the husband - who doesn’t appear to be much of a brainiac, truth be told - has to think on his feet to get out of this terrible situation. So, he’s like “look, I am totally stealing this lettuce, but it’s not for me - it’s for my massively pregnant wife,” and Dame Gothel is like “how pregnant are we talking here?” and the husband sort of stretches out his arms a bit and goes “about this much,” and Dame Gothel nods slowly and says “well, neighbour, I’ve decided that you can have as much lettuce as you want, but there’s one condition,” and the husband is like “my wife is so desperate for this lettuce that I’m 100% sure she’ll agree to any condition you impose, so it’s a deal,” and then Dame Gothel rubs her veiny hands together and says “I would very much like to steal something in return.
She tells the husband of her wishes, and he goes back home to his wife, handing over the 8 metric tonnes of lettuce, then sitting on the bed and taking his wife’s hands. She’s all “you’re being surprisingly nice to me considering I just made you risk your life for a salad; what the fuck did you do?” and the husband just sighs and says “I might possibly have agreed to give our neighbour our child in return for all this goddamn lettuce,” and the woman just kind of nods consideringly and says “it’s really good lettuce, though,” and the husband is like “so I’m off the hook?” and the woman nods and says “yeah, I mean, I probably would’ve thrown myself out of the window if you’d returned empty-handed,” and the husband beams and he’s all “does that mean I can try some of the lettuce, then?” and the woman jerks her hands away and says “fuck no, you just gave away our child in return for a leaf vegetable, this lettuce is all mine.”
When the baby is born, she’s immediately handed over to Dame Gothel to raise as her own daughter. Because Dame Gothel is either a spectacular bitch or just really shit at naming things, she decides to name the baby ‘Rapunzel’ in reference to the plant that eventually granted her a daughter, and you probably know the rest of the story from this point (although there’s no Flynn Rider, and there’s also the small fact of the prince falling out of the tower into a pile of thorns and going blind, and Rapunzel getting pregnant with twins while she’s locked in the tower, and then crying magical tears that restore the prince’s sight - presumably, Disney just thought ‘fuck that’, because magical glowing hair was not quite so nightmare-inducing).
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