Much Ado About A Name

Some time ago, I posted a name post which got me "tomorrow-ed" and triggered the most number of comments ever. That was my early days of blogging when I still went under the nick of "shakespeareheroine", where I explained the usage of this monicker in here.

So now, someone asked me how did "juphelia" came about? Actually it is my own creation - a combination of my favourite Shakespearean characters of Juliet, Ophelia and Celia. Personally, I think it is a very good-sounding name. Perhaps I will name my daughter this in the future.

Whereupon, the same person then asked, what about if I have a son? What will I name him? I have not really decided, although I did think of a few nice-sounding names. So he then suggested the Shakespearean heroes of the same - Romeo, Hamlet and Orlando, and combined it to become "Omelet". I cringed when I heard that! Corny sense of humour some people have! That is no way to name anyone's son!

This came about when I was reflecting on the names which my nephews and nieces have. During my grandparents' time, their names were very simple. Chinese names of one syllable, easy to pronounce and write. My parents' time saw a change in Chinese names, where the names have some special meanings like "flower" or "jade" or "pearl" or "strong" or "healthy". They adopted their own English names.

In fact, among the men, there are names with the meanings of "always number one", "pillar of the country", "country's creme de la creme" and "smart and alert" to name a few. The women have names with the meanings of "golden swallow", "golden pearl" and "golden lotus" to name a few.

My cousins and I have rather unique names, supposedly to be beautiful and poetic in the Chinese language. Yet now, when it comes to the next generation, all of them go by English names. The grandchildren of my dad's sister have names like Timothy, Nicholas, Rachel, Kimberly, Keagan, Keith, Jessica, Johnathan, Joshua and Andrea.

Those of my dad's brother have names like Colin, Vince and Celine. And now, my newest nephew and niece is called Tristan (will he have a sister called Isolde then?) and Emily Maia. Pretty fanciful! As parents, I think it is hard to give a name to your child, because if you give something that does not sound "right", the poor child will be at the butt of cruel and merciless jokes all during his / her childhood. I should know!

For me, I like my name better now than in the past. But if I ever want to change a name, it will be to something really poetic, beautiful and at the same time, means something sweet. A difficult choice actually. It is just as well my name sticks for now, otherwise I may end up calling myself something totally horrendous!

Which Name To Choose?

I have been told I need a name for my baptism, preferably the name of a saint. Does my name not suffice? Afterall, my name, or rather, the more common longer version of it, is the name of a saint. But if I must have a middle name, I would like the name “Jacqueline”, as I always thought how nice that would sound if it is combined together with my name and surname.

My sponsor told me to choose the name of a saint of the month I was born in. The only one I know of that month is St. Jude, but I cannot use that as that is quintessentially a guy’s name. Neither will I call myself Judy. Somehow I never liked the name Judy, so I will never use it.

Then I thought of “Katherine” since it means “pure”, but then I do not think it sounds nice enough when combined together with my name and surname. There are also other options like “Helena”, “Joan” and “Margaret”, but these names do not sound right to me.

If I do not need to use the name of a saint, I would want to use “Titania” or “Ophelia” or “Juliette” or “Viola”. As it is, I do not know many female saints except for Margaret, Joan, Katherine and Cecilia. But somehow these names are just not me. Anyone like to suggest a name I can use?

What Is In A Name?

There is an old adage "Every Tom, Dick or Harry." What is it about a person's name? So what if someone is called Tom, Dick or Harry? (Although the name Dick may create uproar where guys are concerned.) :-p

But should someone be judged by what he is called? After all, one always say not to judge a book by its cover, then we should not judge a person by his / her name. So what if Grace is not graceful? Or Harry is not hairy? Or May is not born in May? I know of parents (Chinese parents in particular) who gave their kids names incorporating words like "Dragon" (Long), "Strength" (Qiang), "Excellence" (Jie), "Handsome" (Jun), "Beauty" (Mei), etc, hoping the best of the kid. It is actually not wrong to name the kids nice names but the joke will be on the parents if the kids turn out to be totally opposite of their namesake.

My parents picked my name from a combination of two names. One represented the Patron Saint of Music, and the other means "heavenly beauty". In the past, no one believed my name was given by my parents; all thought I named myself after a Shakespeare character. If I had my own way, I would call myself "Jacqueline". Perhaps I will use that for my baptism name. Anyway, my parents combined both names together, hoping I will have both of the qualities, ie musically-inclined and having heavenly beauty. Yet I had neither. :-(

However, my name used to be the butt of jokes in primary school, because it can be mispronounced as something else in English (something that means "ditzy"), and also can be mispronounced as something worse in Hokkien (something that means "death"). During upper secondary Biology lessons, we learnt that a certain part of the human anatomy happened to have the same pronunciation but a different spelling from my name (just a difference of one letter). Needless to say, I was the butt of jokes again. As a result, I used to hate my name. In fact, I still dislike my name. I always wondered why my parents could not give me something nicer sounding, or something that sounds more feminine. The only reason why I am still keeping this name is because not many people have it, and besides, it is the name of one of my favourite Shakespeare characters.

I have met lots of people with unusual names. I like to think that my name is unusual too (as compared to a more popular variation with an additional syllable), because most people will pronounce it as the variation with the additional syllable. I believe those who know me will know only me as having the name. Incidentally, I have only come across one other person with the same name as me so far. That was probably why I used to receive lots of emails from guys throughout junior college and university from the intranet, as firstly, my full name is probably the shortest on the list; secondly, it is unusual, and thirdly, I was probably the only one in the entire school or campus with this name. In fact, most of the guys who used to email me all commented that they find my name unusual and they have not come across anyone else with the same name as me.

I have friends who have unusual names too, like Elkan (probably the only one in Singapore), Angelice (probably could not decide between Alice or Angeline), Damascus (wasn't he a Greek hero?), Janeiro, Galileo (were the parents hoping he would become a famous astronomer with new scientific theories? Perhaps this Galileo will suddenly discover that the Earth may be the Centre of the Universe after all, and the Sun, Moon and Stars all revolve around it. Which reminds me, I have to remember to catch the Mars getting close to Earth tomorrow midnight.), and even Archimedes (Eureka??)!

Recently I also got to know another person with a very unique name, probably the only one of its kind. His name is exactly the same as the current name of one of the offshore islands here, an island used as a British military base during the second World War when the Japanese were about to conquer Singapore. When Singapore was under the Japanese Occupation, this particular island was used as a massacre field, resulting in the former name which means "Island of Death", before it was changed to the current nicer sounding name.

So I guess the lesson is to choose a proper name for your children. People with unusual names get picked on all the time, whether to answer questions, or to fend off irritating people. I am speaking both from personal and friends' experiences. Please do not saddle your children with a name that will cause them to be a sad case for life.

How "American" Am I?

I seem to have achieved a breakthrough. At last count, my readership comes from Europe, North America, Asia, and even Antarctica (you know who you are, thanks!). So I have installed a web counter at the bottom of my page so as to take a headcount of exactly how many people come into my blog.

I just finished a quiz on how American I am. Apparently I am only 44% American. (No offense please to my American readers.) Actually I always like the American or British way of life, there is more freedom and people are more independent. Living in an Asian society such as this does not give one many chances to be truly independent. Even such a simple thing as moving out to stay on my own is not allowed, as my parents will start blaming me for not wanting to take care of them, etc, in short, blaming me for emotional negligence and being accused of being unfilial. Come on, I am just moving out to stay on my own, it is not as if I totally chuck them aside and forget about them! I have to move out once I get married anyway.

I will love to stay in UK or US or even the countries Down Under. I wonder if I may have the chance to migrate there someday?