What's in a Name?

I just need to get this off my chest: German names are weird. Usually I can't tell because when I meet someone, chances are real good (~110%) that I don't understand what their name is. The reason for this is two-fold: 1) it's something I've never heard before and 2) (if you're an active kweeks train follower I'm sure you've guessed it by now) I don't speak German. The name part of the conversation sort of just runs together with every other incomprehensible word that's being said.

I didn't blog about this when it happened, mostly because I didn't want to talk about work on the public domain...Deutsche Bank has a serious Big Brother complex going on. But, it's my last day and I'm running back to the land of the free tomorrow so Big Brother can suck it. When I met one of my coworkers on my first day, I couldn't really understand what he said when he introduced himself, so I had to listen to what everyone else called him to find out. I managed to ascertain that his name was Hamlet. Awkward. Maybe his parents liked Shakespeare. Or wanted him to suffer (whether at the hands of Laertes or of other children is unclear). But the next day, the Prince of the Danes answered the phone and he definitely didn't say Hamlet. Back to square one. Creepily listening to his phone conversations, my next guess was "Helmet." More awkward than Hamlet? Hard to say. Eventually I manned up and asked someone. Proving that the truth is stranger than fiction, I was told that his name was actually "Hartmut." Just to give this some cultural perspective, this is the country that used to have a list of names that you were allowed to name your child. This isn't the work of rogue parenting. This is a legitimate German name. Hartmut. Say that to yourself. Heart. Moot.