The Thing About Names

Names to me are kind of important. Actually, names are very important. Sometimes I think, it makes or break a person.

Naming something or someone is a delicate and important exercise. Both practically and spiritually. It has to sound right, mean right and most of all, feel right. Wouldn't you agree that there are some names that are totally hedious? Yup, that's the last name I would name my daughter.

There are names I would never name my baby gal.

One of them is Chloe. Don't get me wrong, Chloe is a beautiful name. Elegant, nice but, Chloe was the name of my first dog. Chloe was a beuatiful mongro that I adopted from S.P.C.A. and a dog very close to my heart. The first and only dog I ever had. But despite the feelings I have for Chloe, I'll never name my baby gal Chloe.

Names sometimes sounds great on its own but place it together with a surname like mine, TAN, you get a whole lot of combinations that perhaps draws a joke or two too much.

Then you have the chinese names to contend with. Both Daphne and I found it more difficult find a suitable chinese name because of our limited vocabulary.

Names for me too needs to pass what I would term a "scolding test". It needs to sound right when I call the name for discipline or scolding. "Bernadette! Come here!" doesn't sound quite right compared to "Jackson! come here!". It needs to short and punchy.

All in all, it was a far greater exercise than we both expected during the nine months of pregnancy. Choosing her Christian name was the easy part. Daphne knew all along what name she wanted for our baby gal. Since I got to choose the name for our son Mattheus, Daphne chose our baby gal's name. Getting the chinese name right was the challenge. But we soon, with her dad's help, found what we were looking for.

We didn't want anyone to know her name until she was born. So to appease everyone that asked, our working (ok.. make that my working title) for our baby gal was Frodo. When it became certain at about 4 months that she was really going to be a girl, we switched to Arwen. Of all the laughters I get for using both working names, my daughter can be thankful that her working title wasn't Gollum. (would be quite fun actually. Then I can call her "My Precious!")

And so her name.

Maegan Tan Ee Ning. 陈依宁 (Chen Yining). Not Megan. Not Magen. Just Maegan. Maegan with an additional A. Mae in short.

Maegan means "Pearl" in Gaelic. Ee Ning 依宁 means Reliable and Peaceful.

And now that we as parents have done our part to find the best name possible for her, it's up to her to make out what her name will mean for her and what it will mean for the world as she grows up.

As the saying goes, names are what we make it out to be.

Maegan Tan Ee Ning. I like the name. :o)