What’s in a name?
I’m certainly no expert on the influence of names on one’s life, but I still maintain a genuine interest in unusual names. I can remember very clearly, in our second Chinese lesson at university, my class received our Chinese names. I was relatively content with ‘Fan Shanming. At a recent chess tournament I played in, all the players had their own name cards out, so I was presented with an ideal opportunity to discover which chess players had the most creative parents. The parents of Xiaohu (‘little tiger’), Wan Yunguo (‘ten thousand cloud kingdom’) and Yuxiang (‘scent of rain/ petrichor’) were all suitable candidates. I also admired the ambition of Jianqiao’s (‘Cambridge’) parents. English people are not always aware of the origins of some Chinese names.