I work in an organization with over a thousand employees. All of the staff are Chinese (except me and another guy), and almost all of them have chosen an English first name. The most common name is Eric with 11. The next most popular names, with nine each, are: Ada, Andy, Connie, Grace, May, Patrick and Shirley. Pretty average sorts of names: nothing unusual there.
However, there are some staff that have decided, for one reason or another, to adpot slightly more interesting names. Here are some of the more colourful names currently being used by staff (in no particular order): Rainbow, Water, Vicks, Poling, Visky, Circle, Windy, Gobby, Qubee, Psyche, Rabbit, Teenie, Banda, Lyron, Joeky, Lawman, Winky, Uranus, Boot, Strawberry, Milk, Tweety, Bone, Pries, Kinki, Endy and Rhema.
Now, I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking I made these names up. I mean, who would willingly want to be known as Bone or Gobby. But these are real names of real people. It took me two minutes to scan our telephone directory to find them. So, what’s going on?
Hong Kong people tend to decide their English name when they reach school age. Usually, by the time they reach primary school. The names are sometimes chosen by parents, and sometimes, by teachers. However, many decide to choose their own names. I suspect that this is where most of the colour is applied. There is some logic to some of the names listed above. For instance, Poling could the anglicization of her Chinese name, while Water could represent one of the characters of her Chinese name. Rainbow, Pinky, Rabbit and Strawberry are cutesy sort of things/concepts that young girls are interested in. Pries and Banda are clearly made up and quite unique, while Lyron, Endy, Visky, Gobby and Joeky are variants of the names Byron, Andy, Vicky, Bobby and Joey. Qubee, Tweety, Lawman and Vicks are brand names. Rather impressively, Pysche and Rhema are both Greek (the name of Cupid’s bit of stuff, and the word for the voice of the Holy Spirit). The trouble begins when trying to explain the names of objects/concepts like: Boot, Bone, Uranus and Circle.
I have drawn up a selection of interesting first names of staff that have left over the years: Soros, Pinky, Catty, Fantanie, Inez, Oddie, Exon, Cymbie, Ocean, Cantius, Maddux, Conan. I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide which category could apply to each name. But, here’s my all-time favourite and one that can’t be categorized: it has to be: Porny. Amazingly, she was a very attractive sales staff. She could get it changed. I use to know someone called Do Do, who went to the Immigration Department and had her name changed to: Yoyo! Good news: I have just been informed that my company has just hired someone called Deng Xiaoming. That’s the closest you are likely to get to being named after China’s ex-supreme leader. Amazingly, though, she’s a girl!
