What’s In a Name? Part II
It’s hard to come up with a name. It carries weight, hope, and dreams. In ancient times, it reflected the moment of the times. It will be what she’ll be called, it’s our first gift to her.
Her English name means “Pure”
- Undivided Devotion: unadulterated or unmixed. Focused, not split.
- Free from Guile: honesty, sincerity, and a lack of deceit or hypocrisy.
- Continuous Pursuit: It does not mean perfection, but rather a sincere pursuit of it
Like her brother, we wanted her name to reflect her parents by including our first initials in the name. Since our first started with a L, we tried to see if we could land on a K. We did not realizes the Kardashians had taken so many K with L names! Interestingly, the 2 names that we narrowed down to at the very end were the first 2 names that my wife had written out on our very first brainstorm of names early in the pregnancy. Her name is also a derivation of ‘Caleb’ which was the name we almost went with for our first. It was a lot harder to land on her name but through it all we went back to the 1st name we had written down.
Her Chinese Name:
Her Chinese name is 樂心 (Lok Sum) and like her brother, there’s some meaning to the name.
The character 樂, which means ‘happy’ or ‘joyous’, is a generational character and so both our children will have this in their name (more explanation in Part 1).
The phrase “快樂的心” means a ‘happy heart’ or a ‘heart of joy’. My last name can be used to mean “a lot of ” as in 許多, so her full Chinese name can come to mean ‘a heart full of joy’. Add in her English name and it means “A heart full of pure joy”. Our dream for this child.
Her mother’s Chinese name also has a 心 and I have always said it was K’s heart that drew me to pursue her. My hope is that my daughter’s heart reflects the same characteristics of her mother.
Her name reflects the Asian American identity that we as parents have had to navigate and she will navigate as well. Her blended cultural name reflects our deepest hope and desires for this child where real joy is found in deep deep connection with self, family, this world and in the wholeness that comes from knowing that she is beloved.
Together, her brother and her name are 樂善 and 樂心. Their unique characters combine 善 + 心 = ‘kindness’. Our collective hope for our children both to each other, to their parents, and to their future communities/families.
Somehow we’ve managed to have a son who’s middle initials (LS) gives a nod to a certain light-bringer to the galaxy far far away, and a daughter who’s middle initials (LS) mirrors a certain sister, princess, general. That makes me their…Vader?
Welcome Little Girl
11:11am on 2/2/26
Miss You Po Po
Miss you Po Po. World traveler, generous giver, smuggler, ice-cream-in-the-winter eater, tai-chi sword wielder, slot machine enjoyer, warmth and love emitter. The list goes on. RIP.
What’s In a Name?
It’s hard to come up with a name. It carries weight, hope, and dreams. In ancient times, it reflected the moment of the times. It will be what he’ll be called, it’s our first gift to him.
His English name means “Light-giving” or “light-giver”.
- to illuminate the darkness
- to bring insight in confusion
- to bring levity/happiness/joy to a situation
- to uplift in heavy world
We wanted to find a name that included a K and a L as references to his parents if possible. We didn’t want a name that was difficult to pronounce for our parents and families. We wanted a name that didn’t have the traditional meanings of power/strength/king/warrior but one that reflected where we are at in our journey in life with an emphasis on connection and faith. That proved to be a bit of challenge but this is a name that came back around a few times and only confirmed by K after seeing him for the first time.
His Chinese Name:
His Chinese name Lok Sin is 樂善 but there’s a bit more behind the name. It’s inspired by how my Chinese name came to be.
My name, 君 洋 (Kwan Yeung), tells a story:
尹 + 口 = 君
The first character 尹 is my mom’s name and the second character (口) is a mouth. In having me, they added a mouth to the family and this combination actually is real Chinese word Kwan. This became the first or generational part of my name.
洋
Refers to the Pacific Ocean (太平洋) in that my parents crossed the Pacific Ocean to immigrate to America where I was born. Thus the name 君 洋 tells the story of adding a mouth, birthed from my mother, with the surname of my father as both crossed the Pacific Ocean for the American dream.
His Name
A few years ago, I came across this peculiar story of this word 義. Chinese words originate from pictographs so this word is amalgamation of 2 other words:
羊 + 我 = 義
The first character (羊) is sheep or lamb and the second is the word for ‘me’ (我). This word means ‘Righteousness’ and has been around for a long time. It’s interesting because it points to the possibility that the imagery of a lamb over me = righteousness has been around way before Taylor Hudson brought the gospel to China. If so, then where did this image come from? A mystery for another time but I’ve always loved that interesting tidbit.
So as seen above my name has a 洋 which has the sheep (羊) character so it got me thinking how I could unite my name + K’s name for our child’s name.
洋 + 心 + 口 = 善
When I take a part of my name and drop the radical (羊), a character from K’s name (心), and now add a mouth (口) to our family, we form his new name. This character 善 (closer to pronunciation “seen”) means “virtue” or “goodness”. *K’s name isn’t exactly translate into the final word, it’s directionally/visually pretty darn close.
Now like my name, this could have been the second character of the 3 characters but my dad once told me that each generation of a Chinese clan usually follows a naming convention. There’s a book somewhere in some rural Hakka village that lists it out. I guess my dad knew what my name was supposed to be but instead chose 君 for me and my sister. The real name or the next generation’s name was supposed to 樂 which means ‘happy’ or ‘joyous’, most often seen in the lunar new year greeting 新年快樂. So as an homage to my dad and to his installation in me of fascination with Chinese lore and history, that’ll be his second character.
Since our last name can be used in to mean “a lot of ” as in 許多. Then his full Chinese name can come to mean ‘a lot of joyous virtue’.
His name reflects the Asian American identity that we as parents have had to navigate and he will have to navigate as well. His blended cultural name is a light-giver that brings a lot of joyous virtue. A fitting compliment for a complete name.
And the cherry on top: His middle initials give a nod to a certain light-bringer to the galaxy in EP IV, V, VI.
Welcome Little One
3:30am on 5/26/2023
Vancouver – A Chinese Food Eat Fest + Exploring
Lido Restaurant, Richmond for Pineapple Bun + Egg Tart
Pastel de Natas at Union Market.
Jimmy’s Tea House for HK breakfast.
Granville Island Public Market
Granville Market – Popina Canteen. Ice cream puff, Chicken Sandwich.
Longliner Seafoods for smoked salmon
Sea to Sky Highway to Gondola
Richmond Night Market. Didn’t actually go in due to the incredible turn out. Really impressive (from the outside)
Jianghu Taiwanese Pot and Wok
dim sum at Fisherman’s Terrace Seafood, Richmond
Egg tart and Portuguese egg tarts at Saint Germaine Bakery, Richmond
Lemon Tea and Lemon Honey at Richmond Public Market
Montreal Smoked Meats + Flatbread at Vancouver airport
Glacier National Park of Canada – The Wild
It says 7.9mi but our watches said we hike 9.1mi that day. Amazing.
(1) Glacier Crest Trail (2) Meeting of the Waters. Waters from 2 glacier/ice caps. (3) rest after all the switch backs and lunch (4-6) the steep climb to the summit (7-8) Glacier Crest Trail summit. Illecillewaet Glacier (9-11) the difficult trek down
Banff National Park – The Eats + The Fun
(1) Beavertails at Banff downtown
(2) Montreal Smoked Meats + Poutine at Banff Poutine
(3-4) 18 holes of Disc Golf at Canmore Nordic Centre
(5) McDonald’s poutine
Banff National Park, Alberta Canada – The Pristine
(1) Banff National Park downtown (2) Lake Louise, (3) Canoeing on Lake Louise (4-5) Moraine Lake (6) Marble Canyon Trail. 0.9mi hike. Kootenay National Park (7) Banff wildlife overpass for animals
Pedal The Cause – The Ride
An incredible event. 10/10. It was such an intentional and inspiring day with a few incredible moments and tough turns.
Coronado Bridge
An incredible ride that starts with a steep climb up a sectioned off Coronado bridge. What a view.
Broken spoke! At mile 3 right towards the bottom of the bridge going at close to top speed K hears a weird sound and immediately stops. Fortunately a few friends coming up behind us are able to help K out enough to allow her to keep going.
Amazing views
A few pot holes and I hit a massive one at ~20 mile mark and flew off the bike. Few bruises and scrapes.
All in all an incredible cause and something K + I hope to be a part of as long as we’re here in SD. K’s already got her sights on the 55mi and we’ll start training soon as we get the front wheel fixed.
Join us next year!