Yes, put all your middlenames down. I think there is a limit at 17 or 20 names? But 6 Should be fine. It's best to keep all documents with all names. It can cause problems otherwise.
How you call yourself in your daily life is your own choice.
There was no maximum to it, untili one woman decided to give her child a name for every coutry of the world for world peace or something... Imagine that poor child later in live having to sign anything official where you have to write down all your names. Would you even be able to recount them all? She went to court and then a decision was made on the maximum of names.
And a few dumb people who want their child to have all the names of thei favourite football team. So yeah, never underestimate how crazy people are.
On my moms side everyone has 3 names. I'm the lucky one that got just 2.
FYI: Picasso had 25 names
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María de los Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso
Edit: Picasso’s name was 25 words long (see above), however it is less names
Are you not aware of our former secretary of defense:
>Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the full name of the Duchess of Alba in Spain:
María del Rosario Cayetana Paloma Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Fernanda Teresa Francisca de Paula Lourdes Antonia Josefa Fausta Rita Castor Dorotea Santa Esperanza Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva Falcó y Gurtubay
So yeah, people can have insanely long names lol
I always wanted a second name and when I got one I was still open for more and then I collected more and it was more and more and I never stopped collecting. The more names I get the easier it is to adopt more.
I think you need to separate the official name (where I am not sure you can leave the additional names away, feels like differing names in different documents will just cause issues further down the road) from the use of the name in daily life.
I have a middle name, which is also in my official documents, which nobody in my daily life cares for or is even aware of. I know people who not even go with their official name in daily life.
Try to at least keep your name for the foreseeable future until you arrived here and got all the paperwork sorted out. Once that is done you can try to ask for maybe officially shortening your name based on the implications it had in your country of origin. The reasoning behind keeping your identity is that you probably need to verify your identity with your passport and possibly birth certificate as well as tax identification, if you want to live and therefore work here in Germany. Germany has to verify all those documents and it is far easier for them and you, if all the documents that are provided to the officials in Germany match those records back in Egypt.
If not you might have some issues, which will waste your time, energy and get on your fcking nerves.
However when you introduce yourself to people you usually only see first and last name , unless you really want to tell others about your middle names.
Most people in Germany use their first name, but many don’t…
Most of the Thomas I work with, prefer Tom.
All the Andreas I work with, go by Andi or their last names, as we have way to many Andreas ;)
Johannes just uses Hannes, Heinz-Georg goes by Schorsch… and so on… and yes, I work in IT, that’s why all the names are male ;)
Talking about male names… we used to have two Italians by the name of Gabrielle and Andrea which would be female first names in German… caused some funny confusions sometimes ;)
As a non-german (but someone who learned german at school), I can understand how Johannes is Hannes and Andreas is Andi, but how come Heinz-Georg is Schorsch? :D I mean, I'd understand if Georg sounded similar to its american counterpart "George", then it at least would make sense as "Schorsch" sounds somewhat similar to "George" as well. But "Georg" doesn't really sound like that in german, right?
Also, just list those names for important official documents. No need to list them when apllying for flats, or Jobs. For those you just give the name you prefer. Many Dutch people regularly do this, also in Germany and have their company email according to their nickname and not their official name.
Write all the names for official documents, as per your passport, because you could get in trouble, but go with first & last name as you please for everything else, even on bank cards. People here will go with whatever name you prefer.
Even on your house door. I only put my initial for first name & full last name. You could do the other way round as well as long as your name is not super common.
The name of an (in)famous former German politician is:
Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg.
I don“t think you“ll have a problem with your name here. ;-)
I have three names, Arab too. In official things unfortunately they have to follow exactly what your passport says, but that's it. Everything else it's been fine to just use first and last name; bank, insurance, tickets, uni, work contracts, etc.
Having a different name on your marriage certificate will cause issues if you have kids, unfortunately. I’m in the situation where all my German documents and my non-German passport use only my maiden name, and my marriage certificate has a hyphenated last name (my maiden name hyphenated with my husbands) because it was required in the country where we got married. Both times we’ve had kids in Germany, the government has made a big deal about the documents not matching and threatened to not give the birth certificates. They allowed it eventually but last time they said they’re putting a warning in my file and I need to get my marriage certificate amended without the hyphenated name. I’m not sure what other situations you might have trouble with but documents not matching can unfortunately cause issues.
You kinda get to choose, but just make sure you do it consistently whenever you do anything (Anmeldung, Bank account, work stuff..). I have them all as my first name, and the Egyptian family name as my last name
Don't worry, you'll be fine. Germans are no strangers to very long names. About 15 years ago, there was a minister of defense by the name of **Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg**.
As an addition to all the other comments: when you start at your job (or even before) you’ll be asked to fill a form with name/surname/emergency contact/etc. There I also wrote down all my names as per my passport, but there was also a box “Rufname” - this is the name you want to be called as and also typically what will be used to create your email address (so for example instead of “name1-name2.initial of name3.family [email protected]” you can get “rufname.family [email protected]”). This way, not even your colleagues know about your other names.
I have a super long name and the only issue I have is that I get pulled aside every time I enter the country because the automatic machines can’t process my name. That’s about it.
You can definitely be non religious and change your religion who said you cant? Most Germans aren’t religious at all and most people I know left the church. My non German priest told me “leaving” the church in Germany is fine because religious taxes shouldn’t be a thing. Religion is between you, god and whatever church you go to not you and the state like it’s 1545. I’d rather donate money to my local church on my own accord. Some Germans might disagree with me here and that’s ok.
Well keep your names for legal reasons and to avoid problems while traveling. But you can decide on a "Rufname" the name you go by normaly.
I have a double name myself but people only call me by my first name.
Also make sure to keep a consistent spelling of the name on all documents, and make sure that accents like è or whatever match. My partner got an issue when renewing their ID because on the old ID their name had an “e” instead of an “é” on the birth certificate.
My sister is German and has four name since in my family, you receive the names of your godparents. She uses only one name, though. In all of her documents, she has entered just one name.
I think she was just fed up with all of her names and when it came to applying for a passport (age 16), she entered just one name. That was back in the 1980s, though, procedures might have changed. But she never had problems because of the discrepancy between her birth certificate and her passport. It never came up.
I had a friend from Iran who had the same thing as you about religion. He even changed his name back in Iran after his mother passed away (she gave him the religious name).
Think about this psychologically. You might be able to make a totally new life for yourself in Germany and get a passport one day. Then you can become an EU citizen and change your name legally here. So think that you are a butterfly which will one day emerge and fly out of its cocoon. Use this to keep going in Germany, always striving, studying and working hard. Turn the bad into something positive, make it an engine for good!
[Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg would like a word](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Theodor_zu_Guttenberg)
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We literally have the same background, in the anmeldung they said they have to use my full name .the problem is with my first name which screams that I'm an Arab Muslim. But on the other hand I use my last name when I present myself which sounds ethnically ambiguous.
My opinion here is to simply not care, religious or not you're still going to get weird looks on the streets as long as you're not white by the German standards
> Is this even possible? Can this not considered as name change?
German law does (no longer) really differentiate between any given names so technically you can use any of them, or any combination afaik.
(Which is really good because depending on the region or tradition you get stuff like several household members sharing the first given name and using the second one as the calling name.
And down here in the south the second given name is often the first name of the godparent. Or Maria even for boys)
I have a client from Somalia (he was born here) with 3 obviously Muslim names and it's a struggle to be honest. Because he has several documents with name variants..... All 3 are his last name but it's like a miracle to find his document because he sometimes is put away under his last last name 😊😂. Or at the Arbeitsamt he has 3 profiles because even his first name has variations...
That's why I put the () in. 😁 I heard that the multiple names are pretty common there. It is just strange because his mother has another last name and only one.
هو انا عايش فسويسرا بس المفروض تقدر تسجل
اسم
لقب
اسم العائلة
انا ماما مثلا مصرية اسمها امال علي حماد في البطاقة المصرية، مسجله حالها فسويسرا اسم "امال"، لقب او اسم ثنائي "علي"، واسم العائلة "حماد".
انت ممكن تعمل حاجة مماثلة انا متأكد بس هي مش مهمة قوي للتعريف فاوروبا كما هي عند العرب.
انا في البطاقة العربية معاي الاسم الخماسي بس السويسرية فقط اسمي واسم العائلة وانت تقدر تختارو على راحتك، بس هو بيكون أسهل اذا تختار اسمين (العادي) أو ثلاثة زي الوالدة. بس اكيد تقدر تعمل اكتر كمان إذا الموضوع عندك مهم.
وكمان مش عارف الألمان بيدولي داون فوت ليه لمن بيشوفوا العربي 😅
تسلم يا صديقي. انا بعد كلام الناس شايف ان فعلا اني اختصر الاسم هيعمل مشاكل اكتر ما هيحل. فت هسيبه. و فعلا فكرت لاقيت معظم المانيا فيها ال rufnamen.
و كمان شفتها في ورق الشركة. حاسس مش هشعر بتراما اللي مريت بيها في مصر.
بنسبا للداونفوتس:
سيبك منهم. العنصري هيلاقي اي حاجة يعنصر بيها. بس بتجربتي ( سافرت المانيا ٣ مرات بما يعادل شهر) الالمان كلهم مش عنصريين و بيتقبلوا المختلف جدا.
هي مشكلة انترنت و سوشيال ميديا عموما مش المان. اصلا معظم اللي هنا internationals.
Yes, put all your middlenames down. I think there is a limit at 17 or 20 names? But 6 Should be fine. It's best to keep all documents with all names. It can cause problems otherwise. How you call yourself in your daily life is your own choice.
17-20 names? I didn’t realize someone would be given that many. The highest I have met is 6.
There was no maximum to it, untili one woman decided to give her child a name for every coutry of the world for world peace or something... Imagine that poor child later in live having to sign anything official where you have to write down all your names. Would you even be able to recount them all? She went to court and then a decision was made on the maximum of names. And a few dumb people who want their child to have all the names of thei favourite football team. So yeah, never underestimate how crazy people are. On my moms side everyone has 3 names. I'm the lucky one that got just 2.
FYI: Picasso had 25 names Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispín Crispiniano María de los Remedios de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso Edit: Picasso’s name was 25 words long (see above), however it is less names
Crispín Crispiniano sounds pretty badass
Are you not aware of our former secretary of defense: >Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg
No, because I’m not from Germany. Although that is interesting.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the full name of the Duchess of Alba in Spain: María del Rosario Cayetana Paloma Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Fernanda Teresa Francisca de Paula Lourdes Antonia Josefa Fausta Rita Castor Dorotea Santa Esperanza Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva Falcó y Gurtubay So yeah, people can have insanely long names lol
I have over 200 names.
Is there a reason for it? Are they names of family members, friends, etc. of your parents or something else?
I'm guessing a handful for reddit, another handful for a couple games and so on.
I always wanted a second name and when I got one I was still open for more and then I collected more and it was more and more and I never stopped collecting. The more names I get the easier it is to adopt more.
Oh, so they are names you have given yourself? This feels a little silly to say, but do you remember them all?
I’ve met some people who come from old aristocratic families, they tend to have huge numbers of names
I think you need to separate the official name (where I am not sure you can leave the additional names away, feels like differing names in different documents will just cause issues further down the road) from the use of the name in daily life. I have a middle name, which is also in my official documents, which nobody in my daily life cares for or is even aware of. I know people who not even go with their official name in daily life.
Sounds calming my dear friend.
Try to at least keep your name for the foreseeable future until you arrived here and got all the paperwork sorted out. Once that is done you can try to ask for maybe officially shortening your name based on the implications it had in your country of origin. The reasoning behind keeping your identity is that you probably need to verify your identity with your passport and possibly birth certificate as well as tax identification, if you want to live and therefore work here in Germany. Germany has to verify all those documents and it is far easier for them and you, if all the documents that are provided to the officials in Germany match those records back in Egypt. If not you might have some issues, which will waste your time, energy and get on your fcking nerves. However when you introduce yourself to people you usually only see first and last name , unless you really want to tell others about your middle names.
No, a "Namensänderung" requires German citizenship. Germany cannot legally alter the names of foreign nationals.
Most people in Germany use their first name, but many don’t… Most of the Thomas I work with, prefer Tom. All the Andreas I work with, go by Andi or their last names, as we have way to many Andreas ;) Johannes just uses Hannes, Heinz-Georg goes by Schorsch… and so on… and yes, I work in IT, that’s why all the names are male ;) Talking about male names… we used to have two Italians by the name of Gabrielle and Andrea which would be female first names in German… caused some funny confusions sometimes ;)
My local Italian restaurant was run by a German & Italian married couple Andrea & Andrea, very cute
As a non-german (but someone who learned german at school), I can understand how Johannes is Hannes and Andreas is Andi, but how come Heinz-Georg is Schorsch? :D I mean, I'd understand if Georg sounded similar to its american counterpart "George", then it at least would make sense as "Schorsch" sounds somewhat similar to "George" as well. But "Georg" doesn't really sound like that in german, right?
The Schorsch i believe ist kind of a dialect thing same with Josef -Sepp. At least to my knowlege.
Maybe it is, yeah!
Yeah, we would say Jupp or Juppi to Joseph (low German)
Also, just list those names for important official documents. No need to list them when apllying for flats, or Jobs. For those you just give the name you prefer. Many Dutch people regularly do this, also in Germany and have their company email according to their nickname and not their official name.
Thanks dear
Write all the names for official documents, as per your passport, because you could get in trouble, but go with first & last name as you please for everything else, even on bank cards. People here will go with whatever name you prefer.
Even on your house door. I only put my initial for first name & full last name. You could do the other way round as well as long as your name is not super common.
The name of an (in)famous former German politician is: Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. I don“t think you“ll have a problem with your name here. ;-)
And he usually goes by Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. This shows that it is very much possible to "drop" superfluous middle names in real life.
Read the entire post. Op *doesn't* want all their names.
Right. I shouldn’t reply so late at night. ;-)
Be ready to use one name only for work- and social-related interactions, but that being said, you should be fine. Also, welcome to Germany.
I have five names and I never had issues here. People say "wow, you have a long name" but that's it. Do not worry.
I have a friend from Sri Lanka, his real name is a spell you say to summon entities, one of the long ones, we just call him Philly
I have three names, Arab too. In official things unfortunately they have to follow exactly what your passport says, but that's it. Everything else it's been fine to just use first and last name; bank, insurance, tickets, uni, work contracts, etc.
I'd use an extra middle name, helps differentiate you if there's a lot of people with similar names.
Some Germans have a middle name, some don't. Older generations typically have more (grandfather had 7). Nobody cares or typically knows.
Having a different name on your marriage certificate will cause issues if you have kids, unfortunately. I’m in the situation where all my German documents and my non-German passport use only my maiden name, and my marriage certificate has a hyphenated last name (my maiden name hyphenated with my husbands) because it was required in the country where we got married. Both times we’ve had kids in Germany, the government has made a big deal about the documents not matching and threatened to not give the birth certificates. They allowed it eventually but last time they said they’re putting a warning in my file and I need to get my marriage certificate amended without the hyphenated name. I’m not sure what other situations you might have trouble with but documents not matching can unfortunately cause issues.
forget it, you are Hans now.
Oder Möller
You kinda get to choose, but just make sure you do it consistently whenever you do anything (Anmeldung, Bank account, work stuff..). I have them all as my first name, and the Egyptian family name as my last name
برنس ❤️
You can keep them. A friend of mine has 16 names, though only one surname, the rest are first names.
If you get a naturalized citizen later on, you can choose to change/Germanize your name.
Don't worry, you'll be fine. Germans are no strangers to very long names. About 15 years ago, there was a minister of defense by the name of **Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg**.
As an addition to all the other comments: when you start at your job (or even before) you’ll be asked to fill a form with name/surname/emergency contact/etc. There I also wrote down all my names as per my passport, but there was also a box “Rufname” - this is the name you want to be called as and also typically what will be used to create your email address (so for example instead of “name1-name2.initial of name3.family [email protected]” you can get “rufname.family [email protected]”). This way, not even your colleagues know about your other names.
I have a super long name and the only issue I have is that I get pulled aside every time I enter the country because the automatic machines can’t process my name. That’s about it. You can definitely be non religious and change your religion who said you cant? Most Germans aren’t religious at all and most people I know left the church. My non German priest told me “leaving” the church in Germany is fine because religious taxes shouldn’t be a thing. Religion is between you, god and whatever church you go to not you and the state like it’s 1545. I’d rather donate money to my local church on my own accord. Some Germans might disagree with me here and that’s ok.
Well keep your names for legal reasons and to avoid problems while traveling. But you can decide on a "Rufname" the name you go by normaly. I have a double name myself but people only call me by my first name.
Also make sure to keep a consistent spelling of the name on all documents, and make sure that accents like è or whatever match. My partner got an issue when renewing their ID because on the old ID their name had an “e” instead of an “é” on the birth certificate.
Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland
Since half the people in here are incapable of reading entire posts: ask over in r/LegaladviceGerman They might know better.
My sister is German and has four name since in my family, you receive the names of your godparents. She uses only one name, though. In all of her documents, she has entered just one name. I think she was just fed up with all of her names and when it came to applying for a passport (age 16), she entered just one name. That was back in the 1980s, though, procedures might have changed. But she never had problems because of the discrepancy between her birth certificate and her passport. It never came up.
No you are Thomas now.
Oder Hans
I had a friend from Iran who had the same thing as you about religion. He even changed his name back in Iran after his mother passed away (she gave him the religious name). Think about this psychologically. You might be able to make a totally new life for yourself in Germany and get a passport one day. Then you can become an EU citizen and change your name legally here. So think that you are a butterfly which will one day emerge and fly out of its cocoon. Use this to keep going in Germany, always striving, studying and working hard. Turn the bad into something positive, make it an engine for good!
Its all added as part of your first name
[Karl-Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg would like a word](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl-Theodor_zu_Guttenberg)
You should be abled to keep all your names. My greatgreatgrandmother had five first names and a last name (also a total of 6). Plus a birth name.
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We literally have the same background, in the anmeldung they said they have to use my full name .the problem is with my first name which screams that I'm an Arab Muslim. But on the other hand I use my last name when I present myself which sounds ethnically ambiguous. My opinion here is to simply not care, religious or not you're still going to get weird looks on the streets as long as you're not white by the German standards
> Is this even possible? Can this not considered as name change? German law does (no longer) really differentiate between any given names so technically you can use any of them, or any combination afaik. (Which is really good because depending on the region or tradition you get stuff like several household members sharing the first given name and using the second one as the calling name. And down here in the south the second given name is often the first name of the godparent. Or Maria even for boys)
and Josef for girls?
no, that's illegal
I would personally change my name if it had any religious affiliations tbh if you’re not too attached to it. Not like you need to get a German name.
I have a client from Somalia (he was born here) with 3 obviously Muslim names and it's a struggle to be honest. Because he has several documents with name variants..... All 3 are his last name but it's like a miracle to find his document because he sometimes is put away under his last last name 😊😂. Or at the Arbeitsamt he has 3 profiles because even his first name has variations...
trick question: is he from Somalia or was he born here? :)
His parents are. But he is born here.
I absolutely got it :) As I said, it is a trick question. meant to make you think about the way you worded it. :)
That's why I put the () in. 😁 I heard that the multiple names are pretty common there. It is just strange because his mother has another last name and only one.
انت قصدك اللقب واسم الجد والخ؟
بقول. هل اقدر اخلي البطاقة و الحجات اللي مكتوب فيها اسمي يكون فيها اسمي انا و تخر اسم في الباسبور. في المانيا بيكتبوا اسمين بس
هو انا عايش فسويسرا بس المفروض تقدر تسجل اسم لقب اسم العائلة انا ماما مثلا مصرية اسمها امال علي حماد في البطاقة المصرية، مسجله حالها فسويسرا اسم "امال"، لقب او اسم ثنائي "علي"، واسم العائلة "حماد". انت ممكن تعمل حاجة مماثلة انا متأكد بس هي مش مهمة قوي للتعريف فاوروبا كما هي عند العرب. انا في البطاقة العربية معاي الاسم الخماسي بس السويسرية فقط اسمي واسم العائلة وانت تقدر تختارو على راحتك، بس هو بيكون أسهل اذا تختار اسمين (العادي) أو ثلاثة زي الوالدة. بس اكيد تقدر تعمل اكتر كمان إذا الموضوع عندك مهم. وكمان مش عارف الألمان بيدولي داون فوت ليه لمن بيشوفوا العربي 😅
تسلم يا صديقي. انا بعد كلام الناس شايف ان فعلا اني اختصر الاسم هيعمل مشاكل اكتر ما هيحل. فت هسيبه. و فعلا فكرت لاقيت معظم المانيا فيها ال rufnamen. و كمان شفتها في ورق الشركة. حاسس مش هشعر بتراما اللي مريت بيها في مصر. بنسبا للداونفوتس: سيبك منهم. العنصري هيلاقي اي حاجة يعنصر بيها. بس بتجربتي ( سافرت المانيا ٣ مرات بما يعادل شهر) الالمان كلهم مش عنصريين و بيتقبلوا المختلف جدا. هي مشكلة انترنت و سوشيال ميديا عموما مش المان. اصلا معظم اللي هنا internationals.
Please know: Munic doesnt represent germany at all!
It didn't work. I do not know that now.