Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Quirky Euro Files: Laws for German Names

Too much of a good thing? Names run amok in Germany!

Head-spinning example: Check out the names of just one guy, German economy minister Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. Golly, he must have a terrible time monogramming his luggage. Or not.

Another article reported this hilarious little development: "Somebody added an extra 'Wilhelm' to his name in the Wikipedia entry and it was repeated in most German news outlets." What's one more name? No wonder people didn't catch the error. Oh, poor guy.

RELATED POST: China wants 60+ million people to change their names.

1 comment:

lumpy said...

I'd never really thought about it before, but if one were to have a German surname, wouldn't Guttenberg be about the coolest one EVAH? (Well, minus a 't' of course.)

And who wouldn't want an extra Wilhelm in his name? But, hyphenated FIRST names? That's right out, madam. Right out. He should be ticketed for that.