The Name

Her Chinese name was decided weeks Earlier. 維翰 (Wei-Han) comes from a story about an Empress who stood up against her enemies and unified the nation (四方攸同王后維翰). The modern extended meaning of the name is a person with backbones and talent. We chose the name not because we secretly hope that she will become a female president (though that would be okay too). We simply like its meaning and its sound. In addition, we wanted to keep her name consistent with her brother's, so we needed a Chinese word that is easy for non-Chinese speakers to pronounce and that sounds good with an English first name as her middle name. A word like "Xuan", for instance, would be difficult to pronounce, and it's hard to pair it with an English first name.

Choosing her English name was a different story. For the longest time, we were considering Kathleen (Bill's paternal grandmother's name) and Donna (Bill's mom's name). After playing around with different combinations with the Chinese name, Kathleen Weihan Martin was the name we had in mind when we went to the hospital. However, we didn't want to tell people because we wanted to meet her first. And we're glad we didn't spill the beans.

As it turned out, we simply could not put the name Kathleen to her face when we finally met her. For 2 days, Bill and I looked at her and tried out the names and they simply didn't work. But she's just not a Kathleen or Donna.

While we were waiting to be discharged from the hospital, Bill and I started brainstorming. Her Chinese horoscope is Water Dragon, and her Western horoscope is Pieses. That led us to thinking about water. We started talking about names that describe different bodies of water; Brook, River, Cascade, Lake, Ocean, and other variations. Looking at his daughter's face, Bill said, "But she's not a brook or a river. She's much bigger and deeper than that." Also, going with the ocean theme would give her name some connection to her brother's name as well because Kai means the ocean/sea in Japanese.

Ocean. We liked it. We started looking up names that mean Ocean or anything ocean. We tried different ocean names in different combinations with her Chinese name. Finally one stood out: Mira Wei Martin. Mira (pronounced Me-ra) means the ocean in Sanskrit.

So her first and middle names are from two ancient languages that are related not only geographically but also linguistically and culturally. Rhythm and sound are the emphases in both languages (Indian mantras and Chinese poetry). Also, one important element in both ancient Indian and Chinese cultures is a strong respect for nature and its elements. Last but not leadt, both cultures share the core value of balance and harmony.

This is how we named our little girl. Mira Wei Martin. Her name is almost as unique as she is.