Friday freak fact

When I input one half of my chinese first name into babelfish.com, it returns: "Iraq". No, really. Try it: 伊

And if that isn't unhappy or freaky enough, when I plug in the other half of my chinese first name, the translator merely spits back the same chinese character at me. It seems that the standalone word has no meaning in and of its self, unlike thousands of other chinese characters, some of which form my friends' names.

When combined with other words though, my second character can mean "clever" or "alone and forsaken". Apparently, the first character has meaning when combined with other words too, because combination words appear when I type it out on my laptop. However, if you look up the character "伊" in most chinese dictionaries, the entry would waffle vaguely about nothing. It is apparently a word that has faded into obscurity.

Of course Shakespeare famously wrote "That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet" . But Chinese people believe that names are very important, and can shape or influence a person's character, personality, and even life.

And so I often wonder what the significance of my name is, what it portends, how my life will be moulded by it. Does it mean that I am destined to obsolescence and obscurity, my freakish irrelevance marked out at birth by an antiquated name? Or does my name condemn me to a lifetime of unhappy dependence: my life will be as nothing unless I find a partner - that I am doomed to be an hollow cripple unless I obtain a human crutch to lend meaning to my very existence?

Even when my coupled name finally sheds some light on the person I was meant to be, the messages are mixed. No such poetic and wonderful names, which have standalone meanings, as Bright (慧), Jade (玉), Fragrance (芬), Strength (力), Splendour (辉), Good (佳), or Sensitive (敏). Oh Noooooo. It's "Clever" but "Alone and Forsaken".

Hmmm... so maybe I'm meant to lead a lonely and forsaken life thanks to my cleverness?? Once again, my mind conjures up an image of me dying a sad, bitter, and lonely old maid, with my imaginary cat gnawing on my cold, lifeless, blue body, if by a freakish twist of luck, I manage to succeed in my career. _{(This scenario is fueled by a lifetime of hearing the older generation talking about how overly clever or successful women will never find husbands, which is often followed by an exhortation not to be too smart, or become doctors or lawyers: "Girl... don't become a lawyer. Boys don't like marrying lawyers." For now, I believe the saying holds. But damn if I'm going to change my career/life-plan for some hypothetical guy with no balls.)}

Most of all, I wonder: WHAT was my dad thinking when he named me?? Someone please tell me again?