Wednesday, February 4, 2009

What's In A Baby's Name?

Many people have many reasons and preferences when it comes to naming their babies. Some followed the family generation name. Some named their babies after someone they admire. Etc.

For us, we don't have any family generation name to follow (phew!), which means I can name my little angel anything we like....let me rephrase....'anything I like' (Peter leaves this all to me!).

I haven't decided on a name yet (I change my mind every month) but one thing for sure is that little angel will not be having a christian name. I know! I know! Everyone has a christian name, right? It makes it easier to remember, right?

Well, I have nothing against christian names. I have even thought of a few names I like too. But then I feel that once a person has a christian name, his or her chinese name are often being neglected. No one seems to call you by your chinese name anymore.

I am someone very traditional. I like being a chinese and having a chinese name. So maybe I will just choose a 'modern' chinese name for my little angel! :D

9 comments:

missy_k said...

i quite don't agree. chinese names are not necessarily neglected when christian names exist.

I usually address a person by the name he/she was first introduced as. If you noticed, i call JKTI and DCSL by their Chinese names. :P

Mindy said...

Yin How's side as a family generation name to follow which is "Eu". So I suggested, Tan Tau Eu. :P

My thoughts on this the chinese vs english names:

It doesn't matter whether ppl have english or chinese names as long as it's a decent name (unlike the story i told you :P)

From my own experience, it sucks if you grow up using your english name but it's not the in birth cert. Imagine, the kid grows up being called by one name, then when he enters school, ppl will refer to him as another name. I hated it because i couldn't get use to it at that time.

If you want to call your kid by his english name, then put it in the birthcert. Else, just call your kid by his chinese name. Unless there's a reason, I don't understand why parents want to name their children with a chinese name only, but call their children by an english name when they don't add it in the birth cert. If their Chinese name is good enough, why don't they use the Chinese name?

Or you can do what my brother-in-laws do. Just put the chinese name in the birth cert, then choose a chinese name which sounds like an english name. Like Eu Jin sounds like Eugene.

Tan Shu-Yin said...

karen...yeah, u call JKTI and DCSL by their chinese names. that is bcoz they were introduced to u using their chinese names previously.

but usually when a person has a christian name, they will most probably be introduced using their christian names.

Tan Shu-Yin said...

mindy....yeah i agree with u. if i dont put the christian name in his birthcert, then i wont call him by his christian name. i will juz call him by his chinese name.

what i meant was when he grows up and he decided to hate his chinese name, then he mah go find a new christian name lor. but too bad it wont be in his birth cert dee! :P

Mindy said...

He won't hate his Chinese name as long as you don't name him you-know-what. :P

and if he later wants a English name, then that's his choice.

Soo Huey said...

I just wanna share that I quite dislike Chinese names that sound like Western names. It's so corny and wanna be. Usually it'll be a bad Chinese name, and isn't really a Western name, so it just sucks.

With most respect to Mindy, Karen and Peter, I also don't like Chinese with Christian names. We're Chinese, why should we have Christian names? "Shu-Yin", "Soo Huey", etc also 2 syllabus, very hard to remember meh?

My Aussie friends despite calling me "Soo" coz Monash records kept having me as "Soo" knows that I'm Soo Huey and sometimes calls me Soo Huey. To them, Soo is just a abbrev of Soo Huey and they'll still call me Soo Huey sometimes. In fact all my friends think Chinese names are cool and they like finding out what each word in the name means in Chinese. When my family was around, my hsemate referred to me as Huey because she knows my sis n bro are Soo's too.

What I'm tryin to get at with above paragraph is that even globalisation isn't a reason for having a Western name, because Westerners are quite happy to use Chinese names... after all, you're Chinese! In fact, globalisation is a reason NOT to have Western name since there is already increasing dilution of culture and the young generation's loss of culture. In fact, now that China's economy may survive better than Europe/US, it may be beneficial to have Chinese vs Western identity.

Anyway, you guys know I'm very opinionated, but also strongly believe everyone else has right to their own views too. So above is only me sharing mine... It's your kid! :P

Tan Shu-Yin said...

haha...shuey...i alwiz like to hear from you!
yeah...it's my kid after all but then i also happen to like chinese names...though i dont really go for the meaning of the character. i juz choose what sounds nice! :)

Huey said...

LOL. Christian name is a no-no for my future kids too - if I have any. Imagine my dog's name is Xiao Bi... lol!

I once had a foreign customer who told me politely (although I think he was really not polite to say this at all), that my Chinese name is difficult to be remembered and I should have a Christian name, since nowadays foreigners are so common everywhere. I was like, what the H is wrong with your brain? How about you getting used to our names when you are LIVING in our country, dude? Insulting.

mimiteekay said...

lucky for u, peter leaves evthing to u. Chinese names very important- must sound rite!!!!! We r CHINESE.... roots must be there

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