What's in a Chinese Name?

What's in a Chinese name? Definitely more than a mouthful for children with English educated parents.

Though my husband and I can speak in Mandarin, we are not able to read Chinese characters. As soon as news of my first pregnancy was confirmed, I headed to Popular Bookstore to see if I can find anything to read about naming our forthcoming offspring.

I was lucky to be able to find, "Best Chinese Names" written by Liu Xiaoman which was translated into English by Wu Jingyu and published by Asiapac.

After reading the book, we discovered that there were many things that we have to take into account:

1) The name must sound pleasant even when translated into English.
2) It does not sound funny when read with the father's surname.
3) It must be easy to write so that we do not have to struggle writing out the name; we have seen kids crying while practicing to write their own names in Mandarin.
4) The meaning of the name meets our expectation.
5) The characters chosen meet the combination of the five elements of the year child is born.

I bought an exercise book with large squares for writing Chinese characters and soon fill the pages up with possibilities, with the kind support of my Chinese ed friend. But we are not done yet. After the delivery of our son, we noted his date and time of birth, according to Chinese calendar, and consulted a Geomancer, Loh Tit Pat, with our possibilities for his professional approval and contribution.

We were very happy that our preferred choice is acceptable but Mummy's not done yet. I took out my "Numerology Made Easy" book written by W Mykian, published by Melvin Powers and proceeded to add up the numbers allocated to each letter of my son's Christian name of our choice with the that of the Chinese name translated in English. This is to make doubly sure that the full name is compatible to his date of birth and thus will bring him good fortune.

Three years later, we are at it again, this time, to name a baby girl. The Geomancer, Loh Tit Pat, has gone one step better. This time we were provided a thick and auspiciously red covered folder with a certificate enclosed, proclaiming her best choice of name.

So, the next question to ask is , "Is it worth all these hassles?" Well, accordingly to the numerology book, our children are supposed to be artistically inclined and they tend to be. So, those books and the Geomancer we consulted were not bad investments as we look forward to our children's bright future.

To help English educated parents who are likely to face our dilemma one day, here are some useful links to help you out. Please note that these are just links that I have discovered about naming just to give you an idea about what I have been talking about:

Names to Avoid for Your Kids

Edward Hume, who recommended the book I used, "Best Chinese Names", has also provided some useful tips on his website at the following link:
http://www.pshrink.com/chinadopt/NameYourBaby.html

From his website I discovered this link for foreigners. Just enter your your English name to discover your own Chinese name and you can also find out your sign in the Chinese Zodiac.
http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html

This website provides the meaning of the Chinese character in alphabetical order:
http://123-baby-names.com/map2/chinese_names.html

Chaldean Numerology, the system I used:
http://www.numberquest.com/alb/free-numerology-calculator.html

The numbers provided in NUMEROLOGY by Michael McClain does not tally with the ones for Chaldean Numerology, but he has lots of interesting articles to read about this subject.
http://www.astrology-numerology.com/numerology.html

You may also want to check out your kid's "Kua" number to decide best rooms and directions for them to sleep or face. Whenever my children tell me their problems and I find that I am not able to help, I offer them some assurances by giving them some feng shui tricks. An example was, when my son started his primary one education, he often came home crying that his schoolmates and teachers do not like him. According to feng shui, one of his good zodiac "friends" is the Cockerel and that being the year of the "Cock", I give him a red packet with a picture of it printed and ask him to keep in his school bag to help him out. It worked for him!

Here's a link for information about Zodiac Secret Friends and Allies:
http://www.all-about-feng-shui.co.uk/zodiac-friends-jade.html


Here's me wishing you luck and happiness naming your child.