From Little XJ&XJ to Lang (朗)

Lang can respond by turning his head to us when we call his name “Lang3 Lang3” now. It is amazing, isn’t it? I remember around this time last year, we were still brainstorming a name for the Little XJ&XJ.

I guess everybody wants to pick the best name for their babies because this is actually one thing that they can CHOOSE for her/him. You can’t choose the sex, the physical appearance or her IQ/EQ. Those are god sent, pre-denominated by genes, statistics and some luck. Family name is a given in our culture. Little XJ&XJ will have XJ’s family name. Since first name is called given name, a name to be given by parents, it is gotta be a gift to be selected carefully.

(Lang 5 months old)

Like most men, XJ doesn’t enjoy doing this kind of “superficial” chores as much or is not as picky as I am on these “little” things. I volunteered to take the lead on naming our precious little thing who was rapidly growing inside of me. Except for the common cliché such as jampacking parents’ best wishes to the child’s name, I utilized the methodologies a marketing guru would use to create a killer brand name for a new product: market research, trend prediction, macro/micro environment, benchmarking and several focus group meetings. I also initiated my very own 3 “L”s that the final decision of the name will be evaluated upon:

• Simple – The name has to be simple because I don’t want my first grade kid to struggle on writing his name especially in Chinese. More importantly, simple names reduce carbon footprint because they consume less paper and ink! :). In hindsight, I should have named him “L” or “一” in Chinese!!
• Universal – The name has to have the same/similar pronunciation across different languages. My baby will have only one name and this name is easy to be pronounced in different languages. A combination of Chinese name, English name and middle name is too confusing. Improving efficiency and eliminating culture barriers from names, every effort counts!
• My call – It is very nice that every family member contributes in naming the baby. But you’ve got to be careful because this process bonds the family and in the meantime creates disruption . There is only one baby to be named and one name to be chosen. Unanimity is rare. So I make it very clear that no offense, the mom will make the final call.
  

Naming our baby was a time consuming, soul searching and fun process. With my gushing hormones during the pregnancy, you bet a lot of arguments were involved. But the truth is: I don’t remember any unpleasantness now at all. All I am enjoying is my baby’s official name – Lang. No matter how much I loved Little XJ&XJ, how adorable and descriptive it is, it is not up to my 3 “L”s and I had to let it go...

And there is one last step you can’t skip in the information age. I Googled Lang, no negative meanings are associated with this word and I surprisingly found that Lang is actually an interesting, real word in many languages. It is indeed a serendipity!