There's Power in Names!

It has been a very long time. Yet I still remember this joke I had read when I was in Secondary School.

Interviewer: What's your name?

Potential employee: Watt

Interviewer: What's your name?

Potential employee: Watt

Interviewer: (getting somewhat impatient) Yes, what's your name?

Potential employee: Watt

Interviewer: Do you have hearing problems? WHAT'S YOUR NAME?

Potential employee: WATT. Michael Watt

Words, and only words I know. Names are the most condensed of words, for within a name there is so much meaning and power. Yet, people could be so careless with their choice of names for their loved ones. I remember a story narrated by a pastor over the pulpit one Sunday morning.

"My sister once adopted a little boy for she was filled with compassion for the lean, little boy. Her contractor had also brought along his son who had to help him lug some of the heavy materials.

"Ah Too, come here....why you so slow and stupid one ah?" roared the impatient father.

Then turning to my sister he said, "This son of mine is hopeless. He will be the death of me."

"Don't you send him to school?" queried my sister.

"What for. His brain is thick like a brick. He can't remember anything...even simple instructions."

"Can I adopt him? I will send him to school and see what I can do for him," said my sister. The contractor stared at her in disbelief.

When my sister brought Ah Too home, she started talking to him to find out more about him. She found out that Ah Too hated school, because his classmates were making fun of him. "Fat Piggy! Tua Pooi Too!" they would jeer at him.

My sister told Ah Too that she would change his name to Peter. Peter means "Rock", and like the faithful and tough disciple of Jesus, Ah Too with his new name of Peter would also be tough and formidable like a rock. Ah Too liked his new name and soon began to move around with greater confidence. Today, he is a successful accountant in a multi-national company."

Amazing how parents who took 9 months to bring forth a child into the world would only take minutes to decide a name for the child. I did not know whether I was amused or shocked when I came across this article in the news.

Thu Jul 24, 5:41 AM ET


WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A family court judge in New Zealand has had enough with parents giving their children bizarre names here, and did something about it.

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Just ask Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He had her renamed.

Judge Rob Murfitt made the 9-year-old girl a ward of the court so that her name could be changed, he said in a ruling made public Thursday. The girl was involved in a custody battle, he said.

The new name was not made public to protect the girl's privacy.

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment which this child's parents have shown in choosing this name," he wrote. "It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily."

The girl had been so embarrassed at the name that she had never told her closest friends what it was. She told people to call her "K" instead, the girl's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.

In his ruling, Murfitt cited a list of the unfortunate names.

Registration officials blocked some names, including Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit, he said. But others were allowed, including Number 16 Bus Shelter "and tragically, Violence," he said.

New Zealand law does not allow names that would cause offense to a reasonable person, among other conditions, said Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Clarke said officials usually talked to parents who proposed unusual names to convince them about the potential for embarrassment."

I wonder if the above could be worse than the name given to a girl in Malaysia. My eldest sister shared with me this true incident.

When a young lady was caught shoplifting, the police officer asked her for her name.
With head bent, she mumbled her name. Being unable to hear, the officer again asked for her name. The young lady bent her head and tried to restrain her tears. Later she asked for a piece of paper and wrote, "Cheebai". (Hokkien dialect for vagina). Though somewhat taken aback by the unusual name, the officer decided that she should do something for the poor lady. She asked the court to change her name.

The young lady shared that when her mother gave birth to her, there was much suffering and pain. In her anger with the tough birth, her mother decided to name the baby "Cheebai" as a stark remembrance of her agony at childbirth.

Can you imagine the embarrassment and humiliation this child had gone through all those years? I wonder why not one of the teachers had taken the trouble to do something to alter her name?

On the front page of the New Paper, readers could see Mark Lee, the actor, beaming with pride with his new born daughter. He had chosen a name which was rejected by his wife and relatives. He wanted to call his daughter, "Love Lee".

Can you imagine a potential scenario in future?

"What's your name?"

"Love Lee."

"Yes, what's your name?"

"Love Lee."

"You mean it's a lovely idea. Great. What's your name then?"

"Love Lee."

My dear parents. Please, please be creative and select lovely and meaningful names for your off springs. There's power in the spoken words, and as a man is named, so will he be!

Gan Chau