What's in a name?

The best part of my pregnancy was upon finding out the sex of my baby. Having three boys in the family succeeded by other siblings, I had hoped for a girl.

Alas, a boy it was and we proceeded by scouring the Internet and books for boys names.

Felix, Johan, Cory.

Nothing was agreeable between Mahmee and Papah.

Very much towards the end of the whole ordeal, I decided to name him after the doctor who delivered him. A kind, sweet and caring doctor with stuck-out ears resembling Mickey Mouse. Afraid of being labeled as lame though I am, the thought of breaking the news to Mickey was a dreaded one. "Dr. Eugene, my son will be called Eugene too"

Blargh! I am a sucker for sweet endearing moments but was not ready to participate in one.

Imagine my joy when I found the name Gooly's name. It was a welsh form of Eugene. Ya-lah, I am not Welsh or even English but it fits my baby, fortunate and well-born for it was a difficult high-risk pregnancy.

For his Chinese name, FIL wanted the word 'wei', meaning great in the middle and I have chosen another character, 'ren' which when combined with 'wei', means a person with great benevolence. When pronounced in Hokkien (our
mother tongue), it even sounds like Eugene.

And so Gooly is Eugene after all - a boy with a fortunate beginning and hopefully, will live up to his name just like his doctor, having the disposition to do good to mankind in future.

Meanwhile, my name was given by my grandmother. It means profound beauty with the character 'tien' (sky) in the middle. I am by all means not Miss Universe or even Miss Damansara District. The old literatured lady was probably referring to the beauty of the stratosphere on a day when the rainbow was in sight.

Anyhow, it is a sweet hope of how the ancestor might have thought her grand-daughter was going to be Belle, Arielle or even Mulan. Haha..

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" I quote Shakespeare .

It means what matters is what something is, not what it is called. True but when a name tells a story, it matters.