What's in a name?

We Chinese, can be such an imaginative lot when it comes to names.

Some aliases that couples chose for each other is sooo lovingly-sweet, I swear you can get diabetes after hearing them 3 times. Some are so oblivious to their surrounding people, you cringe uncomfortably at their unbashful choices of intimate references everytime. I have heard 'Dardar', 'DearDear', 'BeeBee','Baybee', 'Lingling' (short for darling I presume). Yawnnnn. I know you want her to be different and special. THEN be DIFFERENT AND SPECIAL. The last time I checked, the above-mentioned are approximately used by 89724567 couples already. Be ingenious! One creative fren I know call his woman 'twa liap', which loosely means 'big' in Hokkien (No points for guessing the source of his inspiration...) Very ingenious indeed!

During my school days, if you happen to have a christian name, the popular ones are Michael, Kelvin, Adrian, Andy and Grace, Sharon or Vivian for the gals. Some call themselves after their b'day months like Jan, April, May or named themselves after their fav idols like Sammi, Alan or Aaron. Along the way, some decided to go European and used Federick, Nicholas, Anthony or Christina, just to list a few. Things got more interesting in the late 80s and early 90s with the boom of commercialism and the sudden influx of international brands flooding Singapore. We not only have designers' goods, we started having frens with designers' names too like Coco, Rykiel, Chantel, Cromer, Gaultier and Oliver. One of my peers really topped it all when he decided to call himself Versace. The only problem was he wore no Versaces, and he can't even pronounce the name correctly (He called himself 'Ver-Sa-Chee'). The dead style guru would have been immensely proud of his influence.

Things got even more complicated when the 90s kids came around. Apparently, their parents couldn't decide on the best names for them and ended up merging 2 names into one or chose longer, dinstinctive names to give their children a headstart in life. Names like Amberlina, Angelina, Francesco, Augustine, Isabellina are seriously testing their teachers' mental resolve and tongues. The longest I have heard is John-Francis Mitchell Donnaway, an Eurasian kid I met in tuition class. I heard the poor boy turned gay.

But nothing beats the 90s. This is the beginning of a new dawn for mankind with mobile fones and internet and humans have never been as liberated. I have met Butter, Moon, Pokka, Lizzie, Dixie, Killiney, Azelia, Bennison, Roop, Estrealla, Cantelline, Cordelia (sound like some herpes)...as long as you can imagine it, there muz be one somewhere! Some older folks decided to jump on the wagon and changed their names or adopt new ones to blend in. I have pals named Billion, Oscar, Astro, Mayo and Lithium...I am juz waiting for someone brave enough to try Comdom or Tampon.

For a while, I almost succumbed to 'peer pressure' and pondered deep on how to make my name sound unique. I tried imagining myself as Samsara, Sampoerna, Samurai and even Samsonite but decided that Sam will do juz as fine. End of the day, I think a name is really only JUST a name and what lies within, is more important than a namesake. If you are worth remembering, people will remember you. No point naming yourself Shakespeare, Caesar or Davinci when you behaves more like an uncivilised rascal.

Juz look at one of the most respected statesman, Hairy Lee.

Or is it Harry?