“ich bin der Gigili”

Question

I was talking to a native German speaker and he tends to introduce himself like this:

Ich bin der Philipp

Why "der"?

Answer 1

@Geziefer is right. It is more common in the South to add the article whereas the North left it out. I (West Germany) use the article, too.

I want to add some further thoughts. I copy the example

Das gehört dem Alex.

Imagine there are more than one Alex and you point at one of them and say that sentence. Now you emphasizes to whom exactly it belongs.

But note in your question's example it is a bit odd as the following excerpt highlights:

"Hallo, ich bin der Daniel", sagte Daniel. "Und du bist die Barbara, stimmt's?" Die Reaktion fiel nicht ganz so euphorisch aus, wie Daniel erhofft hatte. "Ich heiße Barbara!", stellte die Angesprochene richtig, "ob ich die Barbara bin, hängt davon ab, was du dir unter der Barbara vorstellst. Es gibt allein in dieser Stadt mehrere hundert verschiedene Barbaras. Um sicher zu sein, dass ich die eine bestimmte bin, die dir vorschwebte, als du mich ansprachst, müsste ich wissen, wie du die Barbara definierst!" ^SPIEGEL

In the Alex-example you can also differentiate between two people with different sex but same name (Alexandra, Alexander).

Das gehört der Alex(andra).

In addition to that another excerpt:

[...] Es sei denn, man ist in einer Kita, einer Kindertagesstätte. Dort wird jedes Kind mit einem "der" oder "die" versehen. Dies macht es den Kindergärtnerinnen leichter, sich das jeweilige Geschlecht ihrer Schützlinge zu merken. Bei Vornamen wie Eike, Kim, Dominique, Marian, Kersten, Elia, Yael oder Sidney ist schließlich nicht für jeden gleich ersichtlich, ob sich dahinter ein Junge oder ein Mädchen verbirgt. [...] ^SPIEGEL

Some people won't like it if you add a die in front of their name (or leave out):

1. (Die) Diana vs (Die) Jana

2. (Die) Diana vs (Die) Anna

"Es heißt nicht die Jana, sondern einfach nur Jana." ^SPIEGEL

Denn wenn sie sich als "Diana" vorstellt, verändert das bayerische Ohr das automatisch in "die Anna". ^SPIEGEL

Just for your information: In some region female person are neuter ;p

Im Rheinland und Umgebung werden Frauennamen traditionell mit dem bestimmten sächlichen Artikel ("dat") versehen: dat Gerda, dat Uschi, dat Chantal. ^SPIEGEL

Answer 2

Just wanted to add: I live in west Germany and I know many people who say this (including myself). So I wouldn't say that this is not common here.

Answer 3

Of course, if someone introduces himself, it should be (but not always ;-) obvious which gender is appropriate - but here it's something regional, if one uses the article when speaking of ones name.

This difference occurs even more clearly when speaking about someone, so for example you can say

Das gehört Alex. Kommt Alex heute mit?

or

Das gehört dem Alex. Kommt der Alex heute mit?

I personnaly use the latter form, but you'll find both versions.

On a not-able-to-show-references basis, I would say that using the article is more common in the south; not using it, in the north of Germany.

Answer 4

Geziefer and Em1 are right - it's primarily a North-South thing.

In my experience this has little to do with real practical reasons - the clarification thing Em1 mentions feels like something entirely different to me (it also is always characterized by a strong emphasis on the article which isn't there in the usage you're referring to, Gigili).

Another distinction is a social rather than geographical one: there's a stereotype that overly PC and socially/ecologically conscious people talk like that (cf. "Ich bin der Martin, ne?".

Also, it appears to be a feature of kiddie-talk: "Das sag ich dem Papa!" (a threat to tell Daddy about something) sounds much more stereotypical (and 'younger') than "Das sag ich Papa!"

(Educators - at least according to the stereotype - fall in both categories :))