What's In A Name?

Have you ever wanted to pick your own name? When I was a preteen, I remember brainstorming names for if I ever was in the witness protection program and had to choose a new name (this was definitely pre-internet). At first I was a bit cocky. I could totally choose a new name. I'd choose one that not only sounded cool but really fit my personality.

But then when I actually put pen to paper, I realized that there were so many factors that go into a name. It shouldn't sound to weird or too plain or too hard to spell. It shouldn't be old-fashioned (no Gertrude!) and it shouldn't have a bad meaning. It shouldn't have any negative connotations. Bessie is a pretty-sounding name until you realize it's only for cows.

And then of course you have to avoid anything that could be easily made fun of. Dick and Fanny are out. Laura is pretty hard to make into a joke (good job, Mom and Dad) but even then some kids tried calling me "Lorda" (Lord of the Rings "joke"). But I think even they knew it wasn't funny and gave up after only a few times.

In the end, with so many factors to take into consideration, I decided I'd leave it up to my handler should I ever be relocated. I did end up relocating to Hong Kong but to teach English, not hide from mobsters. A new name was in order though. A Chinese name.

Since I didn't have enough confidence to even choose a different English name, there was no way I was going to pick my own Chinese name. I was (am?) tempted to pick a really ridiculous Chinese name just to turn the tables. Hong Kong is teeming with Kinkys, Hippos, and Devils. So I wanted to pick a name like 麥記 mak6 gei3 (McDonald) or 長頸鹿 coeng4 geng2 luk6 (giraffe). I mean, why not? There was a French guy who chose the name 激烈的海胆 gik1 lit6 dik1 hoi2 daam2 (the attacking sea urchin? the fierce sea urchin?). He had it on his ID card and everything!

However much fun I think it would be, I still don't have the gumption to do that, so I sensibly asked others to help me. When I was still pretty new to Hong Kong, someone told me my Chinese name should be 羅拉 lo4 laai1 for Laura. I was thrilled to find out that Lara Croft's name is also translated as that (did you see the last tomb raider movie partly placed in Hong Kong?).

Sitting backstage at a statue award ceremony in Shenzhen (ask me later), two artistic fellows argued with each other for almost an hour over which surname I should pick. We (ok they) decided "gam1" would be the best sound since it was pretty close to my original last name, but which gam1 should it be? Gold or bittersweet? 金 or 甘? In the end, they came to an agreement. 金 would make me sound too Korean so I should go with the less popular but solidly Southern Chinese name 甘. Not wanting to be mistook for a Korean person, I followed their advice and have been 甘小姐 ever since. Added bonus: it's much easier to write.

I've gone with 羅拉 for quite awhile, but this year I started thinking I should get a "real" name. Now that the time to apply for PR (permanent resident) is approaching (ok, still two more years, but close enough), I figured it's time to get a name I'd like on my ID card. 羅拉 is nice and all, but it is just the Canto pronunciation of Laura. Even if Lara Croft is pretty cool, she's not very Hong Kong. I needed a real Chinese name.

I decided to ask my friend Derek for help. He is smart and leans to the sincere side, so I figured he wouldn't give me a name that would suck. He's also around my age, which is important. I don't want a grandmother name. We had my first consultation at Fairwoods, discussing the ins and outs of Chinese names over $6 green tea.

He told me that to pick a good name you could consider the meaning, the look of the character, the sound (a name with all tone 1 characters wouldn't sound good), as well as the age appropriateness. He suggested I make a list of names of girls around my age to get used to what Chinese names are like and see what kinds of characters I liked.

I went home and immediately texted some friends demanding their names. But even after I had a list, I didn't think it was expansive enough. I turned to Miss Hong Kong. The Miss Hong Kong pageant has a list of all of their winners and runners up and all that, giving me a pretty extensive list of females. I just had to pick the names in my age bracket and add the ones I liked to my list.

After that I ran them through the translator to see how they sounded and what the character meaning was. I made lists of characters I liked by sound, by look and by meaning. Finally, I tried making some combinations to go with my surname and sent the list to Derek. I'm pretty sure most of them were crap (you can ask Derek to confirm). He sent me back four suggestions that he and his coworkers decided were good.

Then I took a poll of about thirty or forty people (very exact, I know) and asked them to pick their favorite name. Two of the names, 甘雪嵐 gam1 syut3 laam4 and 甘凱嵐 gam1 hoi2 laam4, were the most popular. People either REALLY liked 甘雪嵐 or REALLY didn't like it. I heard phrases like "beautiful," "so elegant," "the perfect name" as well as "pretentious," "not good" and "it sounds like an anime character." I don't like drama, so I decided to go with 甘凱嵐 that pretty much everyone liked. Not to mention that those characters are adorable. I also like that the 凱 in 凱嵐 means "victory" just like Laura! 嵐 means "mountain mist," and as a Colorado girl, I approve of mountain being in my name (although we were DRY and didn't have too much for mist).

Now that I've chosen my name, it's time to start learning to write it! I'll get to that as soon as I get through my kindergarten character book.  大 daai6 (big) isn't as easy as it looks...