Call me names

I don't get why people who don't have first names give themselves such obvious-that-i-put-it-on-myself-and-it's-not-in-my-IC kinda names. Lost me? Let me demonstrate: Let's say my name is Chong Mei Lee or something to that effect. I'm Chinese, obviously feel like i need to compensate somehow cos everyone else has a cool first name and i don't. So i go and pick the worst name i could possibly choose, that makes it so obvious that my parents would have never thought of this name while naming me which in turn makes it more obvious that i have some insecurity with regards to my chinese name, something like Jessica, Christy or Vanessa. I mean, bleurgh. Solution: just be proud of your chinese name.

I mean, totally cool names come about with creative parents. That creativity is not limited to English first names only. I mean, my sister's name is Michelle but everyone calls her May, her Chinese name, also cos she's the youngest. I've an uncle who named his daughters Ginia and Zephenia *something like that, not too sure of the spelling*. Nobody else, maybe one or two in the far lands of whatever, would have that name and you can be certain that they didn't name themselves, cos nobody would name themselves that. Names of that level of creativity would only come from loving parents *cheeky grin*.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

--From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

My parents were somewhat creative. My mum studied in Wales and tried to push on me some Welsh names, like Rhiannon, which means great queen. HOooooo boy. My primary school teachers had difficulties pronouncing Erin right, do you THINK they would get Rhiannon right? Knowing their skills at deciphering names (or lack of), they'd probably end up calling me a rhino. My mum also favored the name Myfanwy, which means my woman (also Welsh). Its pronounced Mih-VAHN-wee. The single "f" in Welsh is supposed to be pronounced as an English "v". Can you imagine? My little irritating classmates would have had a field day with that one.

My dad, haha always reminds me that he's the logical one behind the selection of my name, and they finally settled on Erin. Even that one had varied incorrect pronunciations, like ee-rin, eh-rin, i-reen, and the more evil yoo-reen. Developed from Eireann/Eirinn, it's the native name of Ireland.

I was never satisfied with it, my sister had a whole song with her name in it by the Beatles, Michelle. It was not based on any particular woman. They chose the name because it sounded good. See.

Until i realised that when i line up for things, especially in class where they go in order alphabetically, i have the advantage of seeing what the kids in front of me do first and have the luxury of not having to wait long before its my turn AND not having to be the last to go home. Even if the teacher decides to mix it up and start from Z-A, i'm still pretty safe.

I appreciate my name, and so should you.

~Erin