Catherine

Ma Shuang (马爽) only goes by her Chinese name now, but it wasn’t always that way. In the past, she introduced herself with an English name but stopped using it once she moved to Germany.

Marjan grew up with her grandmother until the age of six and even before she was born, her grandmother was already calling her by a different name. Her parents chose Marjan in the end, but the name her grandmother gave her stayed in the family in more than one way.

In a sunny apartment off Sonnenallee in Neukölln, Jöran Mandik has a theory that when you look at a person, you can see their name on them.

28-year-old Stefanie Kofnyt goes by Stefie, but her family is not allowed to use this nickname. According to her parents, she was born a Stefanie and nothing else. Growing up, the graduate student chose to be known as Stefie to distinguish herself from other Stefanies, which is a fairly common name in Germany.

“I have German order,” Dat begins, an expression that seems to exemplify German language exactness. He’s a young entrepreneur and data scientist working in Kreuzberg, Berlin.

Tang Pin-ji (陈品吉) typically introduces herself by her full name, pauses, then adds, “or just call me Pinch”. The nickname was given to her by a friend back home and it seems to fit the spunky, petite Singaporean.

His name is Jürgen, Jürgen Hofmann from Zeilitzheim. The choosing of his name was reminiscent to a young and charming Schiffsjunge, a serving boy of a ship, who left an impression on the heart of his mother as she was traveling back and forth from Germany to her birthplace in South Africa.