Talking Meme - Day 4: How did you decide on each of your daughter's names? (mrs_dragon)

Jan 4 - How did you decide on each of your daughter's names? (mrs_dragon)

There is a Chinese saying that long after you have departed from this world, nothing you acquired in life will be left-- not money, friends, offspring, land, or posessions-- but one thing: your name. Contrary to Western culture where children may be named in honor of older relatives, it is taboo to name your children after any relatives, as it is considered "stealing" the name of a loved one (and very inconsiderate/rude!) Furthermore, in Chinese culture, we believe that a person's name is very important as it determines your personality and your "spirit". Several sociological studies have indicated that the first impressions of a name can shape how others respond to you, subsequently affecting your perception of the world, and thus may shape your views, traits, and personality.

In Chinese culture, boys are typically given names that connote characters of strength, valor, honor, or intelligence. Girls are typically given names that connote beauty, kindness, or any other feature that may be harmonious in a spouse (some girls have the "misfortune" of being given names like "the one who preceeds the birth of a son", "obedient wife", or "silent one"). For those who do not lean towards those characters, some Chinese families give girls names from nature-- my grandmother, for example, is named "Foong Ai" 风爱, which means "wind lover", and is a homophone for the Cantonese pronounciation for "one who loves all" (Foong Ai).

NAMING OUR FIRST: ERIKA MEILIN (黄美琳)
Our first daughter's Chinese name took a while to decide on! We wanted something that was easily pronounciable by Western speakers. We decided on "Mei Lin" 美琳 which I often translate to mean "beautiful gem"-- she is a treasure to behold and connotes "riches beyond your wildest dreams". However, it also means beautiful (美丽), good heartedness (善良) and lively/active (活泼). The 琳character is supposed to be good for people born in the Year of the Tiger, as the left side of the character 王 means "emperor, king" and the right side of the character 林means "forest"--- combined that would mean "king of the forest", which in Chinese mythological culture is the tiger. We thought this was perfect for Erika, who was born in 2010, the Year of the Tiger.

Other options we considered were: "Mei Yan" 美艷 meaning "beautiful and shining" (but I was worried about the pronunciation of Yan-- supposed to be like "Yankees"), "Min Wen"敏雯 (but foreigners might pronounce it like Wendy and not "wern" to rhyme with "fern"), and also "Mei Ying" 美穎 meaning "beautiful and smart/intelligent" (but my cousins are also Ying, I think... we didn't want to offend).

We decided on our first daughter's English name about a month before she was born (see here:http://aliki.livejournal.com/440756.html) Based on 51 LJ votes, the results of the name voting poll was: Anna, Katherine, Erika, Caitlin, Nicole, and lastly Courtney. Brian's picks are "Katherine", "Caitlin", and "Courtney" (note the hard "K" sound). My picks are "Anna" and "Erika" (both have similar soft starting and ending "aa" sounds).

We decided on Erika, which is the feminine derivative of "Eric/Erik", a Norse/Germanic name attributed to mean "eternal ruler", "ever powerful", or "honorable king". It is a name that peaked in the 1970s (#127 in popularity for baby girl names in USA) but has since dropped off in popularity (#539 in 2012).  We thought it was a nice match to her Chinese name. Little did we know, we were setting ourselves up for quite the aggressive, intelligent, leader that Erika has grown to become! Hahaa~

NAMING OUR SECOND: AMELIA MEI-ZHEN (黄美珍)
In Chinese tradition, siblings of the same gender typically share one of the two characters in the name. For example, my Chinese name is Lai Hee and my sister's is Lai Kheng. So when we looking at naming our second daughter, it was a better idea to reuse Mei instead of Lin, as Lin was specific to her being a Tiger (Chinese horoscope). In a way, naming our second daugther was easier because we knew half her name-- Mei ____. In other ways, it was harder because now we were limited to characters that went with Mei....!!

We decided on "Mei Zhen" 美珍 meaning "rare, precious, treasure, or valuable" -珍稀,珍宝, 珍贵,珍珠; could also refer to being "rare and beautiful" 珍美 means 珍奇美丽. It can also be seen as a revere homophone (pun?) on Zhen Mei 真美which means "truly beautiful (i.e. beautiful on the inside and out)". We liked the parallel with our first daughter's name, which also has the connotations of being beautiful like a jewel.

Other options we considered were: Mei Hua 美 华 has the meaning "beautiful with a glow" “美丽而有光彩的” or "best of the best"精华 though it awkwardly also means "American-Chinese", Mei Xin 美欣 which means "beautiful joy" (but Xin is pronounced Sin), and Mei Ying 美穎 meaning "beautiful and intelligent" (which was also a choice for our first child, but we reconsidered since it's my cousins' name)

For her English name, we bounced around a few names that we liked. Brian liked Charlotte and I liked Alexandra, and we decided on Amelia, which is also Germanic in origin and means "hard work", "industrious" or "fertile". Amelia emerged as the top British name in 2011 and retained the Number 1 spot in 2012, is in the Top 10 in Australia and Poland, and has now risen to Number 17 in the U.S.

P.S. I really wanted the name Mei Hui 美 慧, which means "beautiful and smart, filled with wisdom" for both for my first and for my second daughers, but was strongly vetoed by my mother for personal and irrational reasons. That's a long and complicated story which takes a whole post in its own!