Everyone has a name. Have you ever wondered how did you get named? Between two names decided by my parents, my paternal grandfather had the final say. I was to be called ‘Hin Ching’ — a direct translation from my Cantonese name. My parents never told me what my name meant but an elementary school Mandarin teacher once told me it meant righteousness. Am I right? The very same teacher later encouraged me to change the character to simplified Chinese, effectively losing the actual meaning of my name for many years.
As odd as it sounds, I addressed myself as ‘Ethan’ when I went abroad for my further studies. After all, an English name is somewhat popular among my Asian peers and proves to be favored by lectures and tutors alike who often have difficulty pronouncing foreign names. Over the course of the first few years, I even had the local students pronouncing my name inaccurately. To the international students, I was and still am commonly referred as ‘Eaten’.
It only has been since early last year that I decided to be addressed as solely Hinching. I figured that it was a good idea to have someone remember Hinching then just as another Ethan. After all, remembering it shouldn’t be too hard. Think of my name as a gerund — fishing, singing… Hinching!
Then again if you have been living in Australia long enough, you’ll realise that Australians love nicknames. There has been more than one occasion, where ‘Hinching’ just becomes ‘Hin’ or ‘HC’.
Do you have a nickname?
3 Comments
Wong… Parent called me “Ah Bi” is this a nick? Most of my friend call me chinese name though… Malay friend call me “Wong” which I like the most, but my english name? Not so many people remember nor call it… It’s “Andrew” by the way :P
I still prefer to use chinese names compared to the english ones as mostly english names are quite common and at times you tend to “share” names with others. Chinese names are more unique. :)
btw, I think everyone will have more then one nicks. People cal me feizai sometimes lolz!
@wong Does ‘Bi’ in ‘Ah Bi’ stand for Baby? Ah Bi is what we call a standard nickname.
@yung I do agree with you that Chinese names are much easier to remember. Anyone who adopts an English does always seem to pick the common and rather popular English names.