Thursday 10 April 2008

Colourful names

In the course of my work, I have come across some interesting names. These few days, I have been speaking to a cheerful lady called Summer. I haven't met her yet but I imagine she must be a lively person with a warm and sparkling personality.


Whenever I exchange emails with a Goofy Gao in China, the image of Goofy (above) never fails to float up in my mind. There's also a Colour Wu lurking in Shanghai and a Creamy Yu residing in Hong Kong. I've not met any of them but their colourful names make me want to fly across the world just to catch a glimpse of their face.

Sometimes, you can more or less gauge a person's personality by their name. I know two Spencers, one's a Taiwanese and the other's a Briton living in Australia. Both are really diligent and reliable guys. A name like Nigel tends to make one think of a serious person while Michael probably belongs to someone who's more fun loving.

In Asia, it is not uncommon to find women with androgynous names like Ronnie or Sunny. I was pretty surprised when we met up. They are delicate young ladies, not tomboys!

Today's parents eschew traditional names and create fanciful ones for their child. We don't see many Bettys or Lucys these days. There are also years when some names are more popular than others. In YK's school, you can find at least a few Seans or Shauns in every class.

My name is rather cutesy. While it has worked pretty well all my life, I would probably feel a little awkward when I'm really old, wrinkled and has no trace of cuteness left in me.

Oh well. By then I'll probably be too deaf to hear or too senile to care.

6 comments:

WaterLearner said...

Yes, people get more adventurous and creative these days with names.

I have known some who called themselves Honest, Smile, Cheery .. etc.

I think my hubs is getting creative these days too. I was born in the year of the pig. Hubs used to call me Piggie. That's quite normal a term of endearment. Slowly he started using Porky. Just recently, he thinks that Pork sounds more classy and cool!

The neighbour staying opposite us are muslims. Just last week when he came back home, after ringing the door bell, he went "Pork Pork .. Pork Pork .." at the door while I rush to open. I was so afraid my muslim neighbours would get offended.

Blur Ting said...

Haha, if not for your explanation, one would never ever fathom why your nick name is 'pork pork' :-)

La delirante said...

My name, well...It sounds like a little girl's name: Wendy :) I usually wonder how it will sound when I am older :) I like it a lot though, but since people usually call me Wen, well, it's all right :)

Blur Ting said...

Hey Wen, you're lucky cos you've got a little girl's version and an adult version of your name! :-)

The World According To Me said...

Funny how you hear a name and it conjures up an image of someone.

I've often wished my name was unusual and exotic. Alas it's not. In my school year there were six girls with the same name as me.

SOUL said...

ahhh but what's in a name?? you will always be the colorful YOU-- :))
senile or not ...

happy weekend

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