Our children's names

It was in the year when I was living in Wesley College when I first met young Toby.  He was a resident tutor's son, a mere toddler, a very cute one too, who'd often join our long wooden table for dinner.  In my heart I have already decided, "if I ever have a son, I shall call him Toby."  That was years before I even met Tonton.

When I got pregnant in 2006, the choice for the name of my first born was easy. It will have to be Toby! In fact, that name also fulfilled a strict set of criteria which I have set down for naming my children:

1. It must be made of only 4-6 letter words.  (I've always imagined my brother, Alexander, having a hard time writing down his name on every sheet of test paper during a school exam.  Poor thing.  I would not inflict that on my child.)

2. It must be easily pronounced by non-English speakers, and sounding all right in Cantonese and Indonesian accents too. (I had the misfortune of being called "Ever-lean", "Evening", "Elf-lean", and all other strange variations since childhood.  Hence, I swear I shall not inflict his on my child too.)

3. It should not have any reference to a commercial celebrity or a commercial product.

4. It should ideally have a Biblical meaning.

Even with this laid down guidelines, I am still amazed at how often my family would propose strange names such as Eason, Evan, Conan, Pony, Koala, Eucalyptus to me.


"What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet."

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)