(Don’t share your real name, obviously)

Okay so, wall of text warning:

My legal name is a Chinese name, three characters.

Family name (one character) is said/written first, then the given name (two characters for me… and I assume for most people).

Its a very interesting name, and overall naming system, each character has meaning, well other than the family name which I don’t think it really means anything.

My older brother’s first character is the same as mine, only the second character is different. (It’s [Family Name] + [Character A] + [Character B], Character A is the same.)

I have never met anyone with my exact name, well to be fair, being in the US made those odds even rarer. I did meet someone with the same family name in a US school, and they also had the same DoB as me, which was very weird coincidence.

But my name is so rare in the US, if it ever got leaked, that’s practically a unique identifier.

When I look at my name, idk I kinda feel a sense of antiquity. I have a genology book and the pages are falling apart, I had to scan it and made a .pdf from it. I mean those names are from hundred of years ago, I guess they had to keep remaking/rewriting those books because I doubt something from pre-1800s would’ve survived till now. It makes modern tech feel so futuristic when I think about it, I mean, that geneology book could potentially live om forever, without any deterioation unlike a book.

But simultaneously, when I look at my name, it kinda reminds me of my parent’s emotional abusive and neglectful behaviors. Ugh, idk, feels so conflicted about it. I really wanna ask questions about the past, but we aren’t really on speaking-terms anymore.

When people ask my name, it’s always just so awkward, since… the pronounciation is totally foreign to them. I kinda wanted to choose an English name for simplicity here in the US, but like… I didn’t pick one when I was younger and I think its kinda too late to use one now. Idk what name to even choose.

  • Schlemmy@lemmy.ml
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    7 hours ago

    I’m quite happy that you stick with your Chinese name. You should never give in to the pressure. I’m Belgian. My country has three languages and the French speaking friends always mess up the pronunciation.

    When it matters, like when I’m certain I’ll meet them again, I correct the pronunciation. I became better at it and found words for reference. So when they pronounce the word correctly, they get my name too.