Berlin

Andra with her deliberately grey hair exclaims, “I’m a village girl actually!” Andra was born in Jakarta but grew up in Bandung, Indonesia. From her demeanour, you can tell that 27-year-old Andra is a vivacious person. Her eyes disappear into squints when she smiles, and she laughs straight from her belly.

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.

Lüderitzstraße, Nachtigalplatz and Petersallee in Wedding’s African Quarter might soon lose their names to an initiative started by the district’s administrators. They want to rename the three places, which are…

Father’s Day in Germany goes by so many names. It’s Vatertag (Father’s Day) everywhere, Herrentag (Lord’s Day or Gentlemen’s Day) in northern and eastern Germany while Männertag (Men’s Day) can be found…

This Sunday is Muttertag and one of the most important people in the world has a pretty universal name–-Mom, Mutti, Momma, Ma. But the nicknames and stories we share about…

namennennen is a weekly publication on the names of Berliners. We get them to reflect on their names and what those names mean to them. As way of introduction, we’ve made a short video to give you a taste of what you can look forward to.

For those with names that are difficult to pronounce, or with non-native names in their adopted culture, the frustrations of misnaming or mis-pronouncing are all too familiar to you.

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.