Friday 19 April 2013

What's in their Names

What's in the kids' names? Before we had kids, while still dating, it seemed like the man and I often chat up on suggestive names for our future kids. Even before he popped the flowers and ring. Simply means, we appreciate nice names around us. And when it was our turn to becoming parents, we took a long journey to decide on names.

JAZZELLE 
When we found out my first pregnancy was a girl, we wanted to settle with 'Gisele'. Nope, not Gisele Bundchen inspired, just happened to see it somewhere. Then we realised, this name got kinda common, and my mum joked in dialect, "Ji siao!" Which means always causing trouble in Hokkien. So nah, it's back to the drawing board.

We goggled lots and referenced to a book of names we bought. And there, I saw how beautiful this name was spelled - JAZZELLE. Feels like music with elegance to me! It's an American name which means, the promise and special one. Indeed how precious and unique a child is. As husband and wife, we didn't take long to consent on that name. Even though Jazz came unexpected, I know it's God's promise to me, her Mother. 

韶恩
Her Chinese name is Shao(2) En(1). My mum's into feng shui, and she wants her grand kids' Chinese characters to be 'auspicious.' So we went to a geomancer. Not that we are into it, but we are totally clueless about Chinese names. We were given many characters to match and finally picked these with my parents help. 韶 - Beautiful, ancient music. Which lined with her English name. 恩 - Gratitude. I hope she grows to hold great appreciation and gratitude within her.

JARETH
Our second child's a boy. We've no intended names and so we went back to the book of names. I flipped for days and nights, but nothing caught my eyes. I thought having another J name was ideal, but was very open to having names with K or E, but to no avail as well. My then colleagues would send me links of J names, give suggestions and even though Js are an extremely common letter of names to begin with. We chose it! The sibling identity perhaps. This boy's name was a headache, the man and I could not come to an agreement. Days before his birth, we settled him as Jevon. But thoughts after thoughts, with friends telling me it sounded like a girl, I went back to the book again. I've been wanting to call him JARETH. It was shortlisted, but the man did not agree. And on the day he was birthed, still undecided until it was time to register his name, my man gave in. Well of course, I'm the child's mother, we have that unique womb bonding of 38 weeks. JARETH shall be it! An English name with many variations. According to the Welsh, it means gentle. We hope he grows to be a fine gentleman.

智宇
His Chinese name is Zhi(4) Yu(3). Also given many characters to matched, we decided on 智 - Wisdom, Knowledge. 宇 - Universe. We put them together and thought, wow! A powerful name. He gotta have the wisdom and knowledge of the Universe. What a name to live up to!

Well, names being just names, we all need identity. A gift tag from parents to their babies, to carry with for life. "Don't you dare denounce the names we gave you, Js. It's our gift to you both!" Live with it and love it! Just like how we love you both.

2 comments :

  1. J names are hard to find uncommon ones and your kid's names are nice :) how can they be worse than Princess, Baby or Ninja Turtle!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Haha, Madeline. You make me feel good about their names. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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