What's in a Name? (Part 3)
(For some light background reading, I encourage you to read “What’s in a Name” and "What's in a Name? (Part 2)")
We had an interesting conversation last week during a family get together at my brother Jason’s place. A bunch of the cousins on the Imoo side got into a neat chat about our family lineage, potential baby names, and genealogy (after about 10 years of debating, we finally figured out the difference between a first cousin, a second cousin, and a first cousin once-removed).
On the subject of our baby girl due in late December, all of us cousins once again reminded each other that she will be the first Imoo girl in 75 years; the first girl after 12 straight Imoo boys. We acknowledged that starting with my generation, there are no pure Japanese Imoos left: Jason and I are both half-Japanese, half-Chinese and our cousin Dusty is half-Japanese, half-Caucasian. As well, I married Gail (who is Chinese) and Jason married Joanna, making all of our kids 75% Chinese but with a Japanese last name!
Thus, I boldly proclaimed: “Well then Sean or Jake will need to marry a Japanese girl so their kids will be 5/8 Japanese and 3/8 Chinese.” Realizing that this would swing the pendulum back to the Japanese side (5/8 is 62.5%), I was pretty proud of myself.
Jason pointed out that although our grandkids would indeed be primarily Japanese, that it would be from the mother’s side and not our side.
“Oh yeah,” I replied, “good point.”
Inspired by the cheap shopping at the Richmond Night Market, our cousin Rita offered this gem: “The kids will be like the fake purses you can buy: they will be knock-offs!”
I concurred: “Maybe that’s what I should name our kid: Knock-off Imoo!!!”
Amidst the laughter and the groans, everyone knew this was going to go downhill fast. And I didn’t want to disappoint them.
“Actually, Knock-off sounds Russian. How about Boris Knockov Imoo?”
Less laughter, more groans.
“And if it’s a girl…she can be Doris Knockov Imoo!!!”
No laughter, even more groans, a couple of vegetables hurled in my direction.
I don’t think Gail was within ear-shot of the conversation, thank God. Besides…Doris Knockov doesn’t even compare to the name we think we’ve settled on for our baby girl. If neither of those work out, we can always fall back on Mike (or Michelle) Joyful.
We had an interesting conversation last week during a family get together at my brother Jason’s place. A bunch of the cousins on the Imoo side got into a neat chat about our family lineage, potential baby names, and genealogy (after about 10 years of debating, we finally figured out the difference between a first cousin, a second cousin, and a first cousin once-removed).
On the subject of our baby girl due in late December, all of us cousins once again reminded each other that she will be the first Imoo girl in 75 years; the first girl after 12 straight Imoo boys. We acknowledged that starting with my generation, there are no pure Japanese Imoos left: Jason and I are both half-Japanese, half-Chinese and our cousin Dusty is half-Japanese, half-Caucasian. As well, I married Gail (who is Chinese) and Jason married Joanna, making all of our kids 75% Chinese but with a Japanese last name!
Thus, I boldly proclaimed: “Well then Sean or Jake will need to marry a Japanese girl so their kids will be 5/8 Japanese and 3/8 Chinese.” Realizing that this would swing the pendulum back to the Japanese side (5/8 is 62.5%), I was pretty proud of myself.
Jason pointed out that although our grandkids would indeed be primarily Japanese, that it would be from the mother’s side and not our side.
“Oh yeah,” I replied, “good point.”
Inspired by the cheap shopping at the Richmond Night Market, our cousin Rita offered this gem: “The kids will be like the fake purses you can buy: they will be knock-offs!”
I concurred: “Maybe that’s what I should name our kid: Knock-off Imoo!!!”
Amidst the laughter and the groans, everyone knew this was going to go downhill fast. And I didn’t want to disappoint them.
“Actually, Knock-off sounds Russian. How about Boris Knockov Imoo?”
Less laughter, more groans.
“And if it’s a girl…she can be Doris Knockov Imoo!!!”
No laughter, even more groans, a couple of vegetables hurled in my direction.
I don’t think Gail was within ear-shot of the conversation, thank God. Besides…Doris Knockov doesn’t even compare to the name we think we’ve settled on for our baby girl. If neither of those work out, we can always fall back on Mike (or Michelle) Joyful.
posted by Clay at 2:54 AM
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