Saturday, May 10, 2008

What's in a name.....

Do you have any friend, Chinese or Indian who has English name's?? Most of them i presume......
You'll have SamyKristnanVelluNathanKarupillayPratab, but you can call him Steve or Dang Zhi Kai a.k.a Eric.....

Before i elaborate what im trying to voice out, let's have a definition of "name"

NAME
-a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known.
-
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.-

English names most of my friend has is quite common like, Daniel, Samuel, Timothy, Andrew for the guys and Rebecca, Jeniffer, Rachel, Karen for the girls......

For Indian and Chinese nowadays is quite common to have English name......mainly because of a few factors:-
1) It's easier to pronounce a person by their English name
2) Some of the Indian and Chinese cultural name is tad bit hard to pronounce and it's quite offensive to the person if you say it wrongly
3) Easier to find in facebook and we can spell the name without any hassle
4) Spell checks can't detect our cultural name spellings

Actually, not only Indians and Chinese have English names, but around Asia like Japan, Korea etc, they, too, have pick for themselves these names. For example, Grant Masaru Imahara(It's a person's name, don't believe, go see Mythbusters)

Don't get me wrong, i have no bones to pick on people who have an English name. It's fine for me but up to a certain extend.......What bugs and annoys me, is that you'll have so people who try to be "special" by choosing something unusual to be their name......

The usage of animal, fruits(some of them)names or things/objects like FISH, WATERMELON, ORANGE, TIGER..... Come on!!!! there's gotta be a better name then this!!!!

I have some friends(more like acquaintance) name themselves with fruits......so fruits i can take like Apple or Cherry but Watermelon Leong???? that's gone tooooo far.......

I was thinking a bit shallow about this topic, but then, something struck me, that some of their English name is associated with their cultural names....mainly Chinese......or almost sound the same as the last name....like mine lah.....

If in that case, then, most of this people should pick something you like or that suits you and not worry that it's doesn't fit your cultural name....

By the way, i still cannot
tahan the name Fish Leong. She's a singer born in Malaysia......Dunno why she'll not use her stage name, Jasmine.......Isn't it more sweeter??? it suits more then "Fish".....

Probably is not her fault tho'. Could be her agent or publisher wanted something unique and decided to choose for her "Fish"....good choice......my foot!!!!!

For people who wants to have an English name to add to your cultural name, please choose wisely and try not to take it from inanimate objects because it really does not suit anybody......

Before i end this post, i have a video link on what Chinese people choose for their English name......Quite funny......Thanks to Samanfar and Smacker.......wakakakaka


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

my cousin's bf name is 'birdie' and yes its spelt that way and if ur wondering, yes it is in his I/C.

talk about stupid parents. sigh....

Jason Choo said...

haihzz....well, lost of the time is not the parents who choose the name but themselves....they want something unique, thus weird names is conjure up