Wednesday, October 03, 2007

A Name for the Newborn

I was at my mother-in-law's place last weekend and she asked me if I had chosen a name for the baby. Before I could even answer her, she started her nagging...
"Don't choose names that are similiar to the elders in the family. That's rude! That xxx used the same character for the newborn and it just sounds like one of the auntie's name. Never think one! So rude, no respect!..." she was going on and on.
How to chose a Chinese character that is totally different from all those uncles and aunties? Mind you! My husband has 11 siblings and another 12 cousins. And they each has many sons and daughters. How would I be able to find a character that none of them have use? Unless I go for all those 'oh biang' names.
In fact, I have chosen the names for all my children right from the time I was pregnant with Jia Yi in 2002.
The first consideration was that it must be easy to spell. (My husband is very bad with English. It took him 6 months to spell my name right.)
The second consideration was that it must have values that my child must have.
That's how Jia Yi got his name. 'Jia' as in 'good' and 'Yi' as in 'perserverance'. And it is so easy to spell. Many thought that it means 'plus 1', because 'Jia' can also means 'plus' and 'Yi' means '1'.
When I was pregnant with Jia Ya. Many of my relatives were making fun of me. They were thinking that I will name her as 'Jia Er' as in 'plus 2'. 'Jia' means 'good' and 'Ya' means 'gracious'.
See how I have just changed the last letter of their names. In this way, my husband can remember faster.
Can you guess the name of the one in my womb now? I am going to name him/her... Jia Y?

No comments: