How were you named? Any reasons you were named so?
In the Korean custom, each household has a genealogy book called “jok-bo”that records the ancestors’ names and their lines. The book includes the order of “syllable” each generation should follow to include in their first names. (The typical Korean first name has two syllables)
Let’s say the order is (usually it’s more than 4)
1) Seung
2) Gyu
3) Myung
4) Bong
The first generation sons will be named such as “Seung-Pil” “Seung-Gang” “Seung-Hyuk.” Their paternal cousins (the same generation) will also follow the rule and thus are to be named such as “Seung-Gil” “Seung-Jae.”
The second generation sons will be named using “Gyu.” “Gyu” usually sounds better when used as the 2nd syllable of the name: ex) “Il-Gyu” “Yul-Gyu”
The third generation will include “Myung.” ex) “Myung-Sung” “Myung-Shik”
When you hit the fourth generation and are complete with the list, you go back to the 1st generation to repeat the cycle all over again.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:41 am
… Shouldn’t it be Barack, Brice? That IS his first name. And they usually only analyze the first name, at least for free…
Vietnamese boys have an… interesting tradition when it comes to nicknames.
To apparently protect young boys from evil spirits or influences, they nickname something very different, so when they call for the children, no one listening knows for sure.
But what they call the boys…
My cousins are the best example.
The eldest is named Tien Ky as his real Viet name
His nickname is “Cu Ti” which means, literally, “Small penis.”
His brother is originally named Tien Duy.
His nickname is “Cu Bi” which means, literally, “round penis.”
For my part, my Viet name is “Bao Huy,” translated to “Precious genius.” But because my Vietnamese sucks, I’m not sure which word means what.
So my nickname is “Cu Huy” which could either mean “Precious Penis” or “Genius Penis.”
… Caitlin, Jerry and Priyanka are really going to eat this up.
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July 17th, 2008 at 4:04 am
Hmmm, no tradition as far as I can tell with my names. =/
I agree with Cynthia over the chinese names. As the eldest in my family, I have basically set the precedent for all other females in my family.
Mine is Sher Ling [in the engligh version? unsure as to what it’s called] in Mandarin, it’s Xue Ling. My sister is Sher/Xue Maine. My brother is You Kwong and my youngest brother is You Choong. But I don’t think we actually do the korean thing and label ourselves one, two, three, etc. I think my family may have lost the tradition when my great-grandparents moved to Malaysia from China. XD
One funny story on the precedence of chinese names though. My uncles are called ‘Mun Choi’ and ‘Mun Wai’. My dad was the only one who didn’t follow suit, and probably a good thing. His chinese name is Boon Kee. Now imagine what WOULD have happened if he followed precedent…:P
@ Uncle Dan: That is HILARIOUS! XD I take it the ‘penis’ bit is just to identify all the boys? What would they use for girls then? XD
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July 17th, 2008 at 6:56 am
@Uncle Dan…I am totally impressed.
anyways…my chinese name means bathing in the sun LOL.
and guess where my english name came from? my english teacher gave it to me when I was in elementary school…LOL
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July 17th, 2008 at 10:06 am
My son was born in the water. When I began to push it began to storm outside and rain. He was born under a water sign. So I named him after water (which I will keep private as this forum shows in Google :).
However, my nickname for him is “crink, crink”. He was a HUGE drinker of my milk so his diapers would be soaked. And when one is wet they either prune or “crinkle” up hence crink, crink…
lol @ Dan…I have no desire to meet your cousin now
lol
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July 17th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Hahaha, no worries. He’s a very Texan kind of Vietnamese kid. It’s a bit weird. Doesn’t like to fly longer than an hour, would prefer to never leave Texas. Yeah.
As far as I know, there’s no similar tradition for girls. Possibly it’s a leftover from Masculine-focused society?
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July 17th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
“So my nickname is “Cu Huy” which could either mean “Precious Penis” or “Genius Penis.”
… Caitlin, Jerry and Priyanka are really going to eat this up. ”
Um, ew. haha i’m such a 12 year old boy. Btw, Genius Penis is my new favorite rhyming nickname for you.
My name is Priyanka (dur) which means something like beloved in Hindi I think?? According to my parents and the astrologer they consulted, my name had to start with the letters P-r-i. He/she came to this decision based on the positions of the stars at the time of my birth. I am totally doing this whenever I have to name a future kid.
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July 17th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Oh my God, Uncle–that’s fantastic. Sorry to be a foregone conclusion, but wow. I’m with Priya, Mr. Genius Penis.
You keep giving me ammunition, Uncle Dancow!
Caitlin means ‘pure’ in Gaelic. I think it was wishful thinking on my very Catholic parents’ part.
Apparently they went around to neighbours, looking for names, and came up with Caitlin. But if I was a boy, I would have been either Vincent or Patrick.
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July 18th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Oh, I forgot to mention that it’s more of a tradition for younger kids. After you’re about mmm, 15 or so, it really falls away.
Except for my cousins. I think most of the rest of the family got so used to calling them by their nicknames because everyone lived far away and would only visit Houston once a year or so and just remembered them by that, that yeah, they never got around to it.
Even now, I can’t really think of them by another name. We even shorten it more. “Ti” and “Bi.”
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July 18th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
Sometimes it’s best not to know the meaning of your name…but it can be an entertainment factor? lol
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