"How come you don't know his name?"

The other day, Luca asked me, "what's your grandfather's name?"
I said, "I call him Ye ye." (pron. yay yay for grandpa)
"No, I mean, what's his name?"
"Uh, I don't know," I admitted.
"You don't know your grandfather's name?" Luca was incredulous.

So I called my dad and asked.

"Tsao Ming Yren," said my dad.
"How do you spell that?" I asked.
"I don't know," my dad coughed, " M-i-n-g Y-u-a-n-g?"
"Are you sure? That would be Ming Yuan," I suggested, "Y-u-e-n?"
"Yeah," said my dad, "sounds good enough."

This is the challenge of transpelling Chinese names into English names, using the Pin Yin system which has its shortcomings, including not everyone knowing it. For example, my dad's name is Shan How and most English speakers call him Shan (rhyme with pan), dropping the How part. But really, his name is Shun how with the first half rhyming with pun. But it's not spelled Shun How because in the Pin Yin system that would be pronounced Shoon How. All her life, my sister would introduce herself as fen, and then, when she spelled it out (F-e-n-g), people would go, "Oh, Fang." "No," she'd gently correct them, "I pronounce it fen, rhymes with pen." But actually, the Chinese pronounce it fủn (rhymes with the second syllable in ocean).

Confusing, eh?

So, to simplify matters for English speakers, a lot of Chinese people, like myself, have, in addition to their Chinese names, Anglo names. My grandfather picked out my Chinese name, pronounced wủn - (rhymes with fủn). A nurse at the Ottawa General Hospital (where I was born) suggested Wendy to my parents as the Anglo version and it's been my name ever since - easy to pronounce and spell in Canada. (my parents though always called me wủndy and my sister xiao fủn (pronounced shao fủn).

But my grandfather doesn't have an Anglo name and usually, he signs his name in Chinese, and so that's partly why I didn't know it and why my dad didn't know how to spell it so that an 8 year-old English-speaking Canadian boy could understand it or even pronounce it.

But then, if you think about it, that's probably how all names and words in our language evolve, from being influenced by the pattern of regional languages and accents, imperfect translation systems and "good enough" attitudes. My husband Gio has accepted the canadianized version of his name, although when we go back to Italy, it's Jo-vunny and his Italian relatives want to know, what's a gee-o?