Let me give you some brief history of my name - Beatrice which means joyful. It was neither given to me since birth nor given by my parents. My pastor gave me this name as a Christmas present when I was 10 years old. My second year as a Christian.
My parents asked him to chose a Christian name for us (my sisters and I) according to the meaning of my Chinese name - Sin Yi which means joyful. After months of anticipation, Ps. Lawrence wrote it in a Christmas card. With his cursive writing, I read it as Beatnice. My reaction wasn't all that good. I mean. Beatnice!? so weird! haha.. the best part was when I found out the 'n' wasn't 'n' and it's actually a 'r'. Imagine my shocked face! 0.0 BEAT-RICE!? I'm going to call myself BEAT-RICE or B-EAT-RICE for the rest of my life!? haha.. Man! I knew I should call myself Ruth (the Bible character). Yet, I still hoped for the best pronunciation. Lo and behold, when Ps. Lawrence said it was bea-threess, my emotions were lifted up immediately again! =)) haha.. what a unique name! =D
The uniqueness does not end at the pronunciation only but the origin of the name too!
When I was 10, I was told it's a Spanish name.
When I was 13, my tuition teacher told me it's a French name.
When I was 16, my Japanese friend told me it's a Jap name. (In Jap, it means ideal woman! =p)
When I was 21+, the German hostel guy told me it's a German name.
Last week, my Libya friend told me it's an ARABIC name!
See, everybody loves Beatrice!
Comments