Thursday, March 21, 2013

Giving your sons names



Like many Chinese families, the Chans have a list of words which the male children will be named. This ensures the different generations are differentiated. So by looking at the name you share with your brothers and cousin brothers, you can tell if you are an uncle, nephew, and cousins.

This is not strictly adhered to. My father's  generation used the name Fei which means fly, and they were named after birds. The older cousins were named after big strong birds like eagle, hawk etc. By the time, my younger uncles were born, they ran out of big birds and were named after swallows and other small birds.


I am going back to my roots and have added my Chinese name in my blog.

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