You will
remember that at the end of last year I went to China for a wedding. Chinese
weddings are quite different in their timing to western weddings. They actually
got legally married some time before. They sign the papers, which is the legal
side of it, but they are not considered to be properly married until the big
party, which is what I attended. However, having been legally married for some
time, his wife was pregnant at the big party I attended and their baby is due
in the next week or so.
Today I
talked to him on the Chinese equivalent of MSN. He told me what names they have
chosen for the baby. When westerners choose a name it comes down to what we like, and
in our case goes with our rather awkward family name, but we don’t give much
thought to the meaning of the name.
In China it
is very different and their names have quite significant meanings. These are
the names they have chosen, and what they mean.
His family
name is Ke…said like Kerr. That name means wood, strong wood as in a strong
tree or forest.
For a boy’s
name they have chosen…Ke Yao Ting.
This is what
the names mean:
Ke….wood…tree…strong
like a strong forest tree.
Yao…the sun
in the sky and the stars…
Ting…strong
rain.
He explained that it meant that the sun and
the stars together with strong rain or plenty of rain will make the wood or
tree strong. If the child lives up to this name he will be a strong person,
steady like a large tree.
For a girl’s
name they have chosen:
Ke Xi Ying.
Ke…wood..trees…strong
like a forest tree.
Xi…light…
but not as strong as the sun…more like the light at dawn, tender sunlight.
Ying…water,
but not strong rain…. more like a small stream, a gentle small river.
If the girl
lives up to this name she will be like a tender sapling of a tree fed by a
gentle stream, but not as strong as a man.
The words in
the boy’s name are stronger, more forceful. The words in the girls name are
softer, not so powerful, as a girl is
not as powerful as a man.
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