Given Names

Anna stares at a screen flickering with hundreds of faces. Each one carries a name someone chose. This 2026 documentary project delves beyond onomastics into the very fabric of human identity. The filmmaker travels the globe, from sprawling metropolises to remote villages, collecting stories of how a name shapes a destiny, connects to ancestors, or becomes a burden. We meet parents selecting names by the stars, adults who have shed their birth names, and entire communities where a name is a code of belonging. The film walks the line between anthropology and intimate drama, revealing how this first social tag becomes a key to understanding culture, family, and individual choice in the modern world.