What is in your 'name'?

I've lunch with few ex-colleagues today. Well, just nice to catch up with everyone as usual. When we were about the leave the restaurant, one of my ex-colleagues, let's call her 'S' pulled out her credit card and told us that she just got her name changed. Of course, that become our immediate topic of conversation. The reason why she got her name changed was because her family somehow had run into a person who suppose to know a thing or two about fortunate-telling, saying that if S changes her name to....let's say 'KY', it will be good for her as well as for her family.

Well, I don't know that's really true or not. S aka KY hasn't noticed anything different. Certainly, a lot of personal ID docs have to be changed as well. That costs $$$. The fortunate-telling session, I didn't ask, but I think that's gonna cost $$$ as well. Anyway, I wish my friend S like her name and really result as what the whole name-changing incident aims for. Good luck to her!

What is about a name? What is in your 'name'? I'm not good with names. Cos, if I don't have vivid encounter with someone which involves something memorable, I don't remember names of people that I met in my life, regardless of their races or gender. I'm just not good linking names to faces. So, don't feel bad if I forgot your name, I can't help it, it doesn't mean that I' m not a nice person! I think I'm a bit better with faces, at least I can tell I met you before, went to school, worked in same company before, or living in the same area before. Just don't remember the names. Perhaps, I've blind spots in my brain about names.

Certainly, the two biggest lessons in my life about names are picking my own English name and picking English and Chinese names for my son. It is not easy if you are serious about picking a name. There are many resources out there that can help, but more choices you have, the more difficult to make your choice. Yes, people can change their names, like my friend S did, but that' s not a norm and a name means something. It usually has a story behind it, for the meaning of it and the creation of it. Thank God that I like my name, given by my dad, and I also like my English name that I picked. I can't tell if my son will like his names, it is still too early to find out. I hope he does. Otherwise, I would be quite disappointed, cos that's the first important gift from me that if things work out, he will carry that around for the rest of his life.