Your name...

Dear Mini-N,

When we first thought you are a girl, we had names all ready for you. It was either going to be Annabelle or Allegra. Daddy wanted Annabelle, the perfect daddy girl's name and mommy wanted Allegra. You see, mommy has a real knack for superhero names. Allegra was the perfect name for any up and coming superhero. Maybe a hero that can move, run and dodge real fast!... We haven't come to a final agreement on which one to go with, daddy girl's name or superhero name when we found out you're actually a boy...

Then another battle begins... Julian, the perfect daddy boy's name or Tristan, another super hero name, maybe a hero that is smart, ultra-strong, handsome and all that.. Then playing in my own battlefield, daddy says Julian is a name of a character in Star Trek, some Dr Julian Bashir who's a genetically enhanced human. On top of that, opa and oma gently suggested that perhaps Julian is better... Gong gong and por por? Kinda tough to get support from.. When i say Julian, your por por said in hakka, "Wah sounds like Pearl necklace".. .


When i say Tristan, they say, "What? Twistan ah? hah? Twistan issit?" ...

Finally, daddy said there is no reason why we can't name you after a Star Trek character when mommy named herself after some lizard queen character from that 'V' series back in the 80s. So OK, Julian wins. Make sure you live up to your Star Trek character, baby. According to daddy, he's famous, good looking and smart.

I don't find him super hot but apparently most Trekkers do.

Then there's this final battle over the Chinese name. I'm sure you know your daddy's dutch, you mommy's semi-banana (don't read or write chinese but speaks 4 chinese dialects) and that makes you half dutch, half chinese. Given the circumstances, you'll be a bit more understanding if we don't give you THE MOST meaningful and beautiful Chinese name, right?

The Chinese name we've chosen for you, for sure your friends who don't know chinese, won't know what it means but the best part is, EVEN the ones who knows chinese, won't know what it means. That's because I've asked around, and nobody could tell me the meaning of the name. Some say, it doesn't mean anything, some say, it's a surname and some say, it means "Whispers of Cultural Art". Now the last one is rather fancy. If forced into a corner one day, I'll say just that as the meaning of your name. But frankly, the general conclusion is that your chinese name....has no meaning. Period. Don't feel bad about it because mommy's name in chinese can be intepreted as 'A Man's Will' and your Auntie Connie's name, 'A man's beauty'. So you see, it's not always great to have names with meanings too, you know.

But how in heavens did we come out with the name in the first place? Errr.. Ahhh.. Basically... it's the name of a character in the movie, 'Perhaps Love'. In the movie, he's a famous director called Nie-Wen. Mommy loves him.. Daddy doesn't love him but doesn't mind the name... Cos Nie Wen is a spin off from daddy's own Chinese name... Nie-Gou.. Nie-Wen... Nie-Gou...Nie-Wen...See the similarities?

So there you go, unless the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (National Registry) rejects your name because it is in some form seditious or something... If all goes smoothly, your name is going to be

Julian Nie-Wen (聂文) Walraven

PS: If anyone would like to appeal for Tristan or have a better suggestion of Chinese names, please raise your hands...