Saturday, April 29, 2006

Name, name.. What's in the Name?

Nowadays, before I see any patients, I will look at his/her name first. (I guess most of us are too used to refer patients with the diseases they have or their clinical conditions instead of their names). Throughout all these years, I come across quite a number of patients with "weird" names.. or at least, those names are "weird" to me. To others, the name might be "unique"... or "funny" in another word? I believe parents should name their kids properly or appropriately ;)

The following names are real examples (which I encountered lately) and the surname or last name is censored.. The followings are Chinese names, Malay names and Indian names..

1) xxx Ah Mooi - I presume this is a gal's name when my nurse called the patient. I was surprised when I saw an elderly uncle walking in instead :) (Ah Mooi = little girl)

2) xxx Leng Chai - mmmm.... This is a paediatric patient I saw a year back. Leng Chai in Hokkien (typing error) Cantonese dialect means good looking or handsome guy. I guess his friends or school mates will surely laugh at him when he enter school in the future. And.. I definitely hope that the parents don't name his sister as xxx Leng Lui ( = pretty girl) :P

3) xxxx Ah Big - Huh? This is interesting.. Luckily the patient is not someone huge or gigantic :D

4) Mat Salleh xxx - I guess all my Malaysian friends what the meaning of Mat Salleh ( = Ang Moh or Westerner), and the interesting thing is that I have a Malay patient with the name Mat Salleh :D

*updated*

5) Brain xxxx (instead of Brian) - might be the parents want the kids to be brainy?

6) Money xxxx (instead of Mani) - might be the parents want the kids to be prosperous later on in life? This one is Indian name.

Have u encounter or come across any weird or funny names that you want to share here?

27 comments:

The Yongs said...

Remember Ah Kau? We used to have them in our primary reading literature before... thank goodness he doesn't look like a monkey or a dog (or at least not potrayed as such in the pictures in the text book!)!

Chen said...

the yongs,
Hahaha, yeah... Ah Tu or Ah Kau is very common names in the past :D Nowadays we hardly see any kids with those names..

And nowadays, I guess those people with their real name as "Ah Beng or Ah Lian" will be reluctant to use their real names ;)

Anonymous said...

how about Heineken ? fpund the name in my Uni database.. that name was valid...

must be drunken when register son's name.

Selba said...

my chinese teacher has a weird name, his name means something about cruel/bad thing (can't remember now, will ask him next wed.).

Just not long ago, I watched a program on E entertainment about funny/weird names given by american celebrities to their kids. Like Angelina Jolie's son, Demi Moore/Bruce Willis children, etc.

Kristopher said...

tis is what i know...

1) Phang Sai Then :)
2) Siaw Chieng ( Cockcorach?)

Chen said...

Fred,
Haha, might be.. or the father likes to drink Heineken too much. Btw, now u reminds me of few names that I have encountered with..

1)Brain (instead of Brian)

2)Money (instead of Mani)

I will update my post and add in the above 2 names. :D

Selba,
Yeah, nowadays people have a tendency to give their kids "special" or "unique" names that is different from others.. or names with "special meanings" in certain languages :)

Kristopher,
Phang Sai Then? this one i know the meaning :D

Siaw Chieng = cockroach? Are u referring to the nickname we give the cockroach (as in HK started by the actor Wong Chi Wah)? He called his pet cockroach as "Siew Keong" in cantonese aka "Siaw Chiang" (小強) in Mandarin :D

NickTay said...

i have met a Chin Chai (Hokkien for whatever) and a Tai Poh (Cantonese for big breasts)

Vagabonder said...

Weird names? Oh yeah, plenty, especially with Asians since given weird or ugly names to their children is also to avoid bad luck...Names like "black d*ck" (excuse me), "stupid" or "idiot" is common in VN in the past

Selba said...

Oh, btw... (how could I forget), even my chinese name is not a common name, very ancient name: Xian Hua (flower goddes?).

Chen said...

nicktay,
Chin Chai? Imagine people asking that guy "What is your name?" and he replies "Chin Chai" :D The person who asked must be annoyed with the answer.. hahaha

indaiyoyo,
nursing is a great profession. Needs lotsa passion. what u want to know? I don't know what advice to give u :)

thao,
wah.. are u serious? :P Luckily that was in the past.. imagine if that still happen nowadays in VN :)

Selba,
flower goddess? Mmmm... what a name :D

spinosum said...

@Chen: "Leng Chai" is not in Hokkien, it's Cantonese; we call handsome guys in Hokkien --"An Dao Ba"! ;)

Chen said...

spinosum,
hahaha.. I didn't realise I typed wrongly.. Guess I'm so used to speaking in Hokkien & haven't converse in Cantonese for ages already (I'm Cantonese) :D I will correct the error, thanks for pointing out :D

c a r c a r said...

i have few names in hand which is 'weird' in mandarin.

叶金来(Ye Jin Lai)
苏道光 (Su Dao Guang)

farny right? haha...chen pls do the interpretation out of your understanding. thanks :)

Chen said...

carcar,
hahah.. I know the meaning..
叶金来 sounds like 月经来
苏道光 sounds like 输到光

Well, we have a politician in Msia with the name 拿督 叶金来 too ;)

iml said...

My all time unforgetable one
Lee See Fei

cooknengr said...

What'sup doc, you know the cooknengr's name sound exactly like 黃屎桶 in Hakka. And I grew up in Hakka town...some teachers would purposely make it sound like one.

sbanboy said...

Hmmm one cute name I came across is "Hi my name is Funny" I am not joking ... there was this girl in Ogawa Showroom and she introduced herself as "Funny" cute ... :)

Chen said...

IMLS,
See Fei i know the meaning..
Lee See Fei.. trying to figure out the meaning behind this :)

cooknengr,
yeah, I know your full name.. but I dunno the chinese character for the names :) I guess people nowadays don't call u by your chinese names already.. since u have an english name :)

sbanboy,
wah.. use "Funny" as name?
*pengsan*

Sharl612 said...

I saw Mercedes b xxxxx, Superman a/l xxxxxx, and know one Price Cheng xxxx...

Chen said...

sharl,
wah.. Superman as name? The parents must be "big" fan of superman :D "Mercedes"' parent must be liking or wanting mercedes car a lot... ;)

spinosum said...

Speaking of "funny" names, I just had a few babies in my ward named "Nistelrooy" (football fan?), "Angelina Jolie" (celebrity fan?), and the best of all, "Bill Clinton" (US President fan?) -- I asked those mothers why are those names so unique, and most of them would say, they want their kids to grow up like those celebrities! :)

Chen said...

spinosum,
Hehhe, I really wonder - is there any parents out there who name their kid as "Michael Jackson" or not? :)

day-dreamer said...

I came across a few before...

Jane Tan - 煎蛋
Nelson Tan - 鸟生蛋

I forgot a lot already, paiseh...

By the way, is there any Mr Wang who name his kids 王八蛋? Hehehehe!

Chen said...

day dreamer,
haha, I never realised Jane Tan = 煎蛋.
And another common name, Michael Tan = sounds like 賣雞蛋 in Cantonese.

Sounds like the Tan's family really have to be careful when naming their kids' names :P

Kristopher said...

no la...my friend go this name...b4 the HK star name his cockcroach... :)

Selba said...

I already got my chinese teacher's name!

His name is Hen Wu which means hate himself... will write the chinese characther tomorrow since my home pc doesn't have chinese characther program.

Chen said...

kristopher,
I see :)

Selba,
Heng Wu (hate himself)..
u mean - 恨吾 or 恨我 ?