Sunday Snapshot: Names

These pictures aren’t from today.  In fact, they’re not even from this week.  They’re from that eventful to the big city a couple weeks ago.  But I was waiting to post pictures of my Chinese nephews until I had decided on their English names.  Granted, I thought I would accomplish this task in a much more timely fashion.  If I should ever have children, their daddy better be decisive, otherwise said children may spend the first month or so of their lives without a name.

I had several criteria as I chose names for these little guys.

1) The names had to be easily pronounceable for Chinese speakers.  I didn’t want the poor boys to show up in English class mispronouncing their own names.  I have plenty of students with this problem and it always just makes me sad.  In one fell swoop this criteria eliminated all names with “v” and “th” sounds, as well as names beginning with “r”.

2) The names couldn’t be too strange or unusual.  Should the day come when the boys use their English names with foreigners, be it in an English classroom or a business meeting, I didn’t want those foreigners to suppress a laugh while wondering where on earth this Chinese man got that name.  This criteria also comes from my experiences in the classroom.  I’ve seen students with names like “Clean and Clear”, “the General”, “Cappuccino”, and “Wisconsin”.  Yes, I said Wisconsin.  Turns out some Chinese middle school English teacher named her class of fifty students according to the fifty states of America.  Now that is one creative way to teach geography.  Just think of the possibilities, “Now Missouri, who should be above and below you?”

3) I wanted the names to have significant meaning.  I wanted the boys to have names to grow into, names that they would be proud to explain one day.Alright, I’ve kept you in suspense for long enough.  Wait, what?  You already scrolled past my verbose explanations to see the names?  Shame on you.

Without further ado, I present to you:

Jingbo, the older of the twins and the more patient of the two.  Jingbo has an easy-going, quiet personality.  He is more likely to contentedly observe and watch what’s happening around him than to voice an opinion.  I’ve chosen the name John for him, meaning God is gracious.  It is my hope that his life would be a testimony to this meaning.  In addition, this name is special to me because it’s my dad’s name.  My dad also has a quiet, peaceful personality, so in my mind the name suits Jingbo perfectly.

Jingran is the second born, and the feistier of the two.  He has no shame in letting his voice and opinion be heard, and is already displaying a sharp mind.  I’ve chosen the name Paul for him.  First of all, the meaning of Paul, “small”, perfectly suits him as the smaller of the twins.  Secondly, it’s my hope that his feistiness and sharp mind will be used for great purposes in the future, just as another Paul’s courage and boldness was used to spread good news many years ago.

So there you have it, John and Paul.

Now I just need to learn how to correctly identify who is Paul and who is John.

I can only hope that as they grow they look less and less alike!  Or that they always wear different colored shirts.