namennennen

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.

“When I was in London, because they were not able to say Queralt, they called me Q,” says Queralt Rodriguez Salinas. In Berlin, Queralt has to repeat her name three to four times before people get it.

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.

“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.

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.