What's In A Name

While Yi-Hua and I were eating lunch today, we were discussing names. Not baby names, but just names in general. I've noticed that a lot of his relatives and friends have changed their names before... as adults, and I'm curious to why.

I actually learned some interesting things.

Names of infants are chosen by the grandfather. (The parents can make suggestions, but ultimately the decision lies with the granddad).

The name of a person is actually sposed to determine the FATE of the person.

There are "experts" that you can consult to help u choose the most suitable name for the infant. I think factors such as time, date, place, year, etc are all taken into consideration.

As an adult, if your life is not going as smoothly as you think it should (whether it be job, money, relationships, etc), you can get your name changed officially! TWICE!!! This is a lot of paperwork and hassle we're talking about. I mean changing all sorts of documents, credit cards, passports, etc. Yuck!

There were some other things too, but I already forgot. But what I did also learn was that Yi-Hua's grandpa had gone to an expert in order to choose his name. I guess it worked out for him. lol

As for me, I don't know why, but my parents gave me a very boyish sounding name. I never knew that until I stepped into Chinese 101 frosh year of college. While the prof was taking roll, he called out my name, and when I answered to it, his reaction was, "you have a boy's name." Great, just what I needed.

Anyway, my Chinese name didn't matter much back at home cuz I never used it. But once I moved to Taiwan, 80% of the time someone asked for my Chinese name, I would get the reaction that it was a boy's name. So I learned to give the warning that it was a masculine sounding name before I actually told them what it was.

The most embarrassing time though was when we were taking our engagement photos. The photographer kept looking at Yi-Hua while saying my name, and looking at me while saying his. After a while, we just told him to call me Judy. =P

Still too early to think of Eng names for our 小宝宝. Definitely know we're gonna stay away from those terribly wacky celebrity baby names... =P