Germany actually doesn’t have a tradition of taunting Irish traditions, but Germans know this American tradition at All Hallows’ Eve from German tv, which shows many American movies and tv series. Still under the impression of such tv series, I have a look at Hexlein. The name of this asteroid is German for little witch.

Hexlein is asteroid #24168 and also known as 1999 WH9. Hexlein was discovered by M. Busch, R. Stoss, and Rainer Kresken at the Starkenburg Observatory, Heppenheim, Hesse, Germany. Hexlein’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.47 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.13, a period of revolution of 1 417 days, and an inclination of 8.4 degrees.

Hexlein disappointingly isn’t named after a witch, but after the childhood nickname of Renate Kühnen, who is a friend of Rainer Kresken, who is a co-discoverer of this asteroid. Because the nickname Hexlein only was a childhood nickname, so it can’t be due to skills of the adult person making her look like using witchcraft. Nothing like this or like an interest in the occult is mentioned anywhere. So Hexlein will rather be the nickname of a sassy girl. So Hexlein should be interpreted similar to the asteroids Ragazza and Kèneke, except that Hexlein represents especially sassy children or perhaps being sassy as such.