What’s behind a name?  After I did a whole detailed post on Ethan’s name, it’s now Hannah’s turn.

When we found out we were gonna have a baby girl, we had already pretty much decided on the name Hannah.  I have loved the name Hannah since I was a schoolgirl, and it was only apt that I name my daughter as such.  We definitely wanted a Biblical name and one that is meaningful both for us and for her.  And we also wanted a name that’s not too common.  That’s why we chose Hannah, which means Favored (or Favored by God), or Grace.    In Biblical context, Hannah was one of the wives of Elkanah, and she was blessed with six children, one of whom was Samuel, the glorious warrior and judge of Israel.

With the Christened name decided, it was time for the harder part: deciding on a Chinese name. 

Thanks to the internet, while we were in the US, I contacted a friend of mine in Penang to ask her hubby to help me ascertain a good number of strokes for Hannah’s Chinese name, based on her birth year, surname and also Mommy and Daddy’s birth year.  This friend of mine was also the one who helped calculate the number of strokes suitable for Ethan’s Chinese name. 

She then came back with the results, which stated that based on Pete’s surname, Chua (蔡Cài), there were 4 stroke combinations that would be a good match for the 2nd and 3rd Chinese character for Hannah’s name:

• 7 + 18
• 18 + 7
• 8 + 17
• 18 + 7

So off to the drawing board we went.  Referring to some Chinese name books we had brought along, we wanted a name that had the water radical or water element in it.  I used the internet to list out the various combinations that would sound good and mean good, meeting all the criteria we had set out, and then we gave the list to another friend of ours in Santa Clara to help us decide or recommend.  After a few tweaks here and there, we arrived at a name that we all thought would be perfect for our baby girl.

We chose the name Xi Ling (Xǐ Ling:  禧泠), which is a combination of 17 + 8 strokes.  Xǐ (禧) meant Joy and Ling (泠), which also contained the water radical, carried the meaning “sound of the water flowing“; and together, Xi Ling (Xǐ Ling: 禧泠) means Joy Overflowing, which Hannah is living up to really well, seeing what a happy little baby she is!

So Hannah’s full name is Hannah Chua Xi Ling (蔡 禧 泠 ~ Cài Xǐ Ling), carrying the meaning of Favored by God and Full of Grace, with Overflowing Joy.  Isn’t that a pretty name for a pretty baby?

Okay, I succumbed to online peer pressure and created this simple scrap for Ethan.� It’s like online collage but the difference is you don’t get your hands dirty in the process!� Thanks to Huisia who pointed me to a few sites, I finally found some time to do a quick amateurish one before (maybe) venturing into something more ambitious later on.

The photos were all taken a few weeks ago in the car.� We were parked at the side of the road beside Penang Plaza.� And while Pete went to buy a few necessities quickly from Giant, I got bored, turned around and snapped some pictures.� So what do you think?� Boleh pass or not for first-time scrapping?

After the marriage registration, I could sense that Ethan was already hungry (as were we), so made a beeline for the g Hotel, where the food-tasting cum celebratory lunch would be held.  Since we were still early when we arrived, I took Ethan to the Baby Room at Parkson to breastfeed him, and as expected he fell asleep after a few minutes at the breast.  However, when Pete came to carry him, he woke up and when he realized he was in a shopping mall, with escalators and more escalators, he was immediately rejuvenated!  With all that energy in him, we knew we would have our hands full soon.

We proceeded to the new g Hotel to have our lunch where Ethan enjoyed every bit of it!  He also enjoyed stomping his way on the wooden flooring along the window pane, walking back and forth and smiling all the while.  The g Hotel prepared a rather sturdy RubberMaid baby chair for Ethan, which I must admit looked really macho :P  Ethan sampled almost all the food that was served, his favorites being:

which he declared to be:

After lunch, we headed for home.  And what can we do after a hearty meal but to:

And sleep he did, for TWO whole hours undisturbed!  He actually fell asleep in the car on the way back from lunch and slept on his Fisher Price chair when we reached home.  Pete even managed to trim Ethan’s fingernails then!

While we were out shopping in Queensbay Mall yesterday, we decided to stop by the CIMB Bank branch there because we had to draw some money.  Well well, who should we bump into there but Angeleyes herself!  She recognized us immediately and it was so good to finally meet her in person.  Her Darrius was running around nearby and was extremely friendly when we introduced Ethan to him.  Darrius was all elder-brotherly-like and even tried to hug Ethan!  Ethan on the other hand was pretty shy but still, I managed to catch a few moments of *male-bonding* between the two little boys  :P    Don’t you think they both look similar?

By the way, I must apologize for the poor quality of the photos, because the area was pretty dark, and also it is rather difficult taking a good photo of two active toddlers!

Then I remembered that I had not diffused my aromatherapy lamp for a few weeks already.  Me, being careless and all, I dropped the lamp and the diffusing palette at the top cracked to pieces, so it was no longer usable.  Pete suggested that I get the diffuser replaced so that I could diffuse it again.  A few days after that, I managed to obtain the accessory concerned and started diffusing Eucalyptus.  Eucalyptus is well-known for its Asthma-curing properties, and I diffused it diligently every night when we sleep.  Both Pete and I simply love the aroma, and I’ve used it since Ethan was born.  After a couple of days, we were thrilled to noticethat Ethan was not exhibiting the breathless symptom anymore.  Up till today.  So, does aromatherapy do wonders?  Possibly.  We don’t know if what he had was the start of asthma or not (contrary to what the PD said), but we are certainly glad the breathlessness is no longer there.  Yay to Eucalyptus!

M is for your magical personality
That infectious giggle, that bubbly laugh, you express with sheer vivacity!

R is for “Round and round the garden like a teddy bear”
The rhyme we use to tickle you, yes…tickle you under there!

B is for the *sometimes* bashful side of you
You’re shy, but you also peek - it makes us wonder what you’re really up to!

U is for the unconditional love
From Daddy and Mommy, and from the Lord up in heaven above.

L is for each lovable hug we always share
Each meaningful embrace that simply says “I care”.

A is for how adventurous you are
Running around tirelessly, you’re certainly very active by far!

T stands for talkative, which is what we reckon you will be
Judging by your non-stop blabbering, we’ll patiently wait and see…

A few months back, I wrote a brief post about what the name Ethan meant.  I didn’t go into details then, but now since both Aunty Angie and Aunty Siew Hooi so graciously asked, I am going to elaborate more.  And hey, I’ll even throw in the meaning of his Chinese name for good measure.

When I was pregnant with Ethan, of course like all first-time mommies, I was excited as to what I would name him.  My reliable source of information was of course the internet, and I checked out many baby name sites before zeroing in on a few.  Pete and I shortlisted several names, but all of them were either too common, too many syllables, too weird or reminded us of someone we didn’t want associated with our son.  So names like Gabriel, Joshua, Kenneth… were all not chosen.  When I suggested the name Ethan, Pete immediately said yes!  You know, when you arrive at THE name, you would just know it… just like the time I selected my wedding dress.  I just knew it was the perfect one for me when I put it on.  At the time we selected the name Ethan, it was (I think) one of the top 5 names of the year 2005.  Although Pete and I kept our choice of name a secret during my pregnancy, we were already talking to him all the time and calling him by name then.

And so unto us a child was born, … and we named him Ethan.  Firm.  Enduring.  Strong.  That’s our boy .  We also wanted a biblical name for him, and Ethan fit right into the bill.  In the context of the Bible, Ethan is a name of Hebrew origin, and was a wise man who wrote the 89th Psalm.

With his christened name chosen, we now had to select his Chinese name.  This was a much harder task than we’d imagined.  With his surname is fixed, i.e. Chua (蔡 Cài), we had to get two other characters for his name.  Since both Pete and I don’t know Mandarin that well (actually I can’t speak Mandarin to save my life!), and neither do both our parents, we decided to find out what the ancestral clan character was for Ethan’s generation.  You know, Chinese families typically go by a unique identifying Chinese character in their names for a particular generation?  We figured if we have that down pat, then we’d only need to look for one additional character… haha.  We checked with Pete’s Mom, who checked with Pete’s aunt, who then informed us that for Ethan’s generation, the pattern to follow was: Chua <something> Choong.  The “Choong” corresponds to the character 聪, from cōng míng (聪明), which means Intelligence.  That sounded good, we thought, so we decided to go along with that.

So that left us with only the middle character of Ethan’s Chinese name.  We thought it would be easy then but we were so wrong!  There were so few characters that sounded good with “Choong” at the end, and in desperation we bought a couple of Chinese Name books to help us select a name.  Pete’s Mom actually said it wasn’t necessary to follow the “Choong” ancestral clan name, given that it may very well not be the correct one for his generation and also because we had a hard time finding a suitable middle name to go with it.  She even suggested we named him “Ee Choong”, for “first son” and if we are blessed with baby number 2, then it would be “Yee Choong” for “second son”, and so on! 

In the end, we decided to enlist the help of our friends who were knowledgable in this field of name selection.  One of my good friends had her hubby calculate the number of strokes that was suitably auspicious for Ethan’s middle Chinese name and came up with the result that we should select a character with either 8 strokes or 16 strokes.  In fact, we were still undecided on the middle name even after Ethan was born.  Then Pete had a good friend of his use the information from my friend to select a middle name that would fit that.  In the process of investigation, Pete’s friend discovered that in order to obtain an auspicious middle name for Ethan, the character had to be either a water element or had to contain a water radical.  So after much deliberation, investigation and sleepless nights, Pete’s friend found a perfect match.  And it was really a perfect one, in every way.

Ethan’s middle name is Zé (泽).  If it is written in Simplified Chinese, it takes 8 strokes; if it is written in Traditional Chinese, it takes 16 strokes, thus fulfilling both conditions of “either 8 or 16 strokes”.  It also contains the water radical.  And it means Brilliance.  Ethan shares the same middle name as Jiang Ze Min and Mao Ze Dong.

We finalized his name just in the nick of time.  After Ethan was born, we were only given 14 days to register Ethan’s birth at the National Registration Department, and Pete and I had the registration done on the 13th day after his birthday.

So in conclusion, his full name is Ethan Chua Ze Choong (蔡 泽 聪 ~ Cài Zé Cōng ), which carries the meaning of Firm, Enduring, Strong with a Brilliant Intelligence.  Lately, Pete and I were commenting to ourselves that the name Ethan really suits our boy and his personality.  We can’t imagine him having any other name.  May he grow up to embody every aspect of his name. 

And now, I would like to know what’s in the name for the following babies:

Charlotte
Felicia
Sze Yi
Samuel

Instructions

**Start Copy*
Proposition: What is the meaning of your kid’s name?
Requirements: Write about what or how or why you giving the name to your kids.
Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode:

1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below

2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.

The list
Msaufong-SQ & Kiki
Shoppingmum and Kids-Justin and Isabelle
Chooi Peng-Kai Wen
Judy-Terry
Dragonmummy-Nicole and Marcus
Jasmine-Faythe & Vyktore
Anggie–Jeremy Chang Ee Jay
Chanel–Jeriel Lim Jing Yong
A Mom’s Diary
Shooi - Bryan 
Miche - My ACB
Sweetpea - My Little Fire
Yvonne - The Meaning of Ryan’s Name
ShoppingMum - Justin & Isabelle
Judy - Meaning of the name Terry
LiL’ deviL - Mini Hawke
Mrs. Wallace Notes - My Daughter Name
Raising Belle - Monkey Girl
Hin Lerk’s Diary - The meaning of his name
Our Baby Evan - What’s in your name?
Joyce- The Name Game of Fame

This photo was part of the studio photography package we signed up for.  The album is still not ready as some photos need to be redone.  Meanwhile, we have this picture to gush over.  Good thing though that the frame is silver in color and goes so well with our decor.

After that we hopped over to Standard Chartered and opened an in-trust savings account (Young Savers Account) for Ethan with the moolah he received from Chinese New Year angpows.

We had lunch at New World Park and then it was haircut time for our whole family! We drove to Prangin Mall to the hair salon we frequented mainly because of the head massage thrown in :P.  Pete had his hair cut while I breastfed Ethan in the baby room in Parkson.  Ethan fell asleep soon after and I placed him in his stroller and pushed him to the hair salon.  While he slept, I had my hair cut and washed.  He woke up just in time as Pete had just finished his hair cut about 5 minutes before that.  So after I finished my hair cut, we asked the hairdresser to use the shaver blade #2 to shave Ethan’s head.  As expected, our boy struggled and screamed, because as you know, he hates anything on his head.  Thankfully, it was all over within a space of 5 minutes or so.  Results?  Handsome leh…..!