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Mike MacKeldey is German. But everyone assumes he is something like Scottish or Irish. Blame it on his name.

You'd think it wouldn't matter. You'd be wrong. Anyone who doesn't have a local name will tell you: it's very annoying. A strange name always triggers a kind of suspicion, vague but persistent, a reflexive distrust of the locals, both good and bad. You may have been born and raised in a country, you may even be patriotic, but it doesn't matter. In the worst case you are looked at sideways, in the best case at an angle. The name, a token of belonging, a label of …