“We didn’t worry at all about if people will be able to pronounce our daughter’s long name,” says Divan, a dad of one. “Actually, there is a guy we met when we moved to Beijing. His name is Gregory and we asked him if he introduces himself as Greg cause it’s easier to pronounce. But he said no, he wanted to be called by his full name. That always stuck with me.”

Choosing your baby’s name is never a simple task. There’s so much to consider when picking the perfect name for your child: family traditions, potential nicknames, siblings’ names, initials, meanings, how well it fits your last name, and the list goes on.

It gets even more complicated for people living on foreign ground. As expats, we are influenced by (at least) two cultures. So how do we honor our homeland, our host city, and the culturally diverse community Beijing has made us a part of when choosing a name for our baby? Do we err on the side of caution and keep it short and simple to improve our chances of pronunciation success, or do we go with a hard-to-pronounce baby name and not mind it being butchered each time we try to make a doctor’s appointment?

There’s no way to fully avoid the cross-cultural headache that foreign names of expat kids will most likely cause. Living in China and naming your child anything other than Peter or Amy often do not mix well, so we wanted to find out what Beijing parents have to say about this topic. What made them choose their child’s name, and do they think they made the right choice?

I’ve never been very traditional with anything, and naming my kids was no exception. Both of them were born in Beijing, one pre- and the other post-Covid ( well, not really “post-” because it seems we’ll never get to the “post-” part), and both times I knew we were not going to take the traditional route.

We’d been living in Beijing for so long, and made so many friends from different parts of the world, that it only made sense we would want them to be able to pronounce our children’s names. But let’s be clear. We didn’t choose their names so their preschool teachers, friends’ parents, or distant cousins could pronounce them easily. We chose their names because we thought they were perfect.

The first time, with Noa, we had it all figured out – we were going to go with an international name with a traditional spelling, in this way keeping the connection to our country of origin. Things got a bit more complicated the second time around with Noel, but we finally got to the point where we narrowed it down to two names. But I was so indecisive that I told my husband we should wait until the baby is born to pick the name. And that’s exactly what we did.

Now we have two perfect children with two perfect names.

Because that’s the only thing that matters: The names we choose for our children have to suit us, not anyone else. So how did Beijing’s littlest get their names?

For expat dad David and his family the choice was obvious: “Too many letters in my last name for the hospital computer. Used my wife’s three-letter Chinese family name instead.” The administrative headache factor is definitely a factor that cannot be disregarded. “[The Beijing Family Hospital] computer handled my husband’s long last name fine,” said Lisa Hwang. “Also, we thought at the time the birth certificate and passport names needed to match. We did finally decided to give up on any middle names because we already totaled 21 letters with our son’s first and last name together. It has proven helpful now with [the]daily community Covid testing manual passport input process,” she explains. “We now walk in with a printed paper with our details [in]large fonts.”

While for some it’s a practical decision, for some parents the name they choose needs to reflect their faith and religious identity. ”When we learned that we were pregnant, we knew it from the very start that if a boy, we would name him Jibreel, the angel of revelation,” says Crestie Ilagan, a Filipino mom raising a multicultural child. “In Arabic, Jibreel means ‘God is my strength.’ Our son is a daily reminder of God’s love for both of us. He is our miracle.”

For some others the choice was affected by different factors. For instance, Anja Nesovic, a mom of two, had different concerns about naming her children: “My first one was born in 2017 and my husband and I settled on her name pretty quickly. Our son was born two years later and it was quite a process, picking out a name for him. I’d say that living here had definitely had a big impact on our decision. We wanted traditional names that can be easily pronounced by Chinese people, and I think we found the perfect ones. I think that living here made us not even consider names that we would have normally considered, living back home. There are a few sounds in our language that sound very funny when pronounced by non-natives so we decided not to go with names that contain these sounds. We didn’t want our kids’ names mangled.”

Alison Lemos says that, since his wife’s and his name have the same initial letter, they wanted their kids’ names to start with the same letter, too. However, it wasn’t an easy ride for them. ”We always agreed on the first letter of our children’s names,” he said. “But we argued both times about the actual names, even more the second time. There was one name that I liked because it means happiness and good luck in my language, but has a completely opposite meaning in hers – it means ‘widow.’ So in the end, we went with a name that is uncommon in both countries.”

How about you? How did you pick your child’s name? Tell us in the comment section below.

Images: Pexels

It’s the finale of Game of Thrones next week and if you are currently ‘expecting’ a new GOT fan then this flaming hot idea is yours for the steal: Amazon is now selling color-changing “dragon eggs” that will reveal your baby’s gender in the most epically whimsical way.

The eggs are USD 45 each (approximately RMB 300) and can be found in the Amazon handmade section. There are of course girl and boy eggs covered in hand painted scales, which are activated by heat. You can use all kinds of measures to heat up your eggs including immersing it in warm water, using a hair dryer, or even leaving it out in the sunlight to see if you’ll be having a little Stormborn Daenerys or heir to the throne Jon Snow.

The eggs are also reusable. No baby dragons will emerge from the eggs and no training in the art of fire blowing will be necessary. As the product description adds:“Thankfully, the eggs will not hatch into dragons. Babies & dragons do not mix well together!” Instead use them to store trinkets or as display features in your baby’s room.

While I have you, if you are a diehard fan and thinking of a cool Games of Thrones-inspired name for your little one, girl’s name Arya has been trending. She is the instantly recognizable badass daughter of the Stark family whose life seems to attract adventure and danger at every turn. Her adventures are life-affirming and the dangers she encounters she overcomes with flair.

In the non-Westeros world, that is the real world, the Indian-derived name has become a favorite since the premiere of HBO’s epic, head-chopping, fire-blazing TV series hit our small screens back in 2011 and is one of the fastest-growing baby names for girls in the US. Will you be matching a pink dragon’s egg with a naming ceremony? Whatever the case, nothing will beat giving a home to a GOT dragon’s egg! You’re welcome.

Photos: Amazon

Whether you’re expecting a child, planning one for 2014, or just like being prepared, a lot of parents like to have a few baby names in store. But having a vague idea of a favorite letter isn’t always the most efficient way of finding great forenames.

The baby name finder from popular UK parenting site Mumsnet offers a new way to choose – by envisaging where your child might work and shop in the future. You simply select an ideal job, clothing brand, shopping destination, and biscuit of choice, and you’ll be presented with a selection of suitable names.

While most moms from outside the UK may not be familiar with British shopping destinations and teatime biscuits, the concept is pretty simple. Options at the top of the drop-down menus are considered posh and those at the bottom are traditionally working class.

Of course, it’s all powered by some not-so-subtle class stereotypes. If you want your child to be a hedge fund manager who wears Dolce & Gabana and shops at the upmarket London department store Fortnum & Mason, suggested names will include Hugo, Charles, Victoria, and Allegra. A window cleaner who eats at Greggs (purveyors of greasy baked goods) will supposedly suit the names Alfie and Jayden.

You can also search by place of origin, or pick a name that you’re interested in to see the social profile associated with it. A child named Gustav for instance, is most likely to be an estate agent who shops at middle class paradise, Waitrose. Obviously.

But while it at first it all just seems like a bit of fun (or outdated classism), Mumsnet users’ contributions may actually provide some rather useful information about different baby names and the way that they’re perceived. Click on a name of your choice and you can see different parents’ views on likely nicknames, interesting and unfortunate public figures with the same name, and a section for “when I hear [name]I think of…”

Say someone was considering the name Kai for their son. They may be interested to know that moms on the forum described the name as “vile” and ruined by its appropriation by England footballer Wayne Rooney.

A search for my own name will remind oblivious parents that their child will share their identity with Sesame Street veteran Oscar the Grouch (thanks mom).

Make what you will of their suggestions. But this site may still prove more useful than randomized name generators or alphabetic lists. If nothing else, it might be worth simply checking that a celebrity hasn’t gone and ruined your favorite name. That’s Apple off the list then…

Photo pbkwee (Flickr)