Professor Udolph

sho_Udolph.jpg
Originally uploaded by iMaculate.

This evening I listened to a lecture by Professor Udolph of the University of Leipzig, an expert on names and has his own radio show (Radio Eins) here in Berlin. For a scientist in Slavic Studies he has become quite famous, due to a daily call-in radio show in which he has 20 minutes to tell the caller what his name means, its origins, etc. I had ni idea about his popularity, since I hardly ever listen to radio myself nowadays.


It was quite an entertaining lecture and I even went so far as to buy his book at the end (we were in a book store and this was his promotional tour). His main theory is that names are like vessels that carry remnants of lost words and places.