by Blessy Feliciano
"What's in a name, Mr. Shakespeare?" This article started up with that mental product.
When I was about to graduate in elementary, I remember how my teacher complained about my classmate’s name that would be lettered on the diploma. Imagine manually writing Kristine Michelle M. del Rosario on a legal size paper and rewriting it for every error and you will surely understand.
In high school, that student had problems with the National Secondary Assessment Test (NSAT) answer sheet. Instructed to write in print one letter per box, the boxes provided weren’t enough! I do not know how she handled it; but I remember how she frowned when her name on the high school diploma was printed occupying two lines.
What I feel bad after realizing such things, which happened after teaching my nephews how to write, is that I wasn’t able to ask her if she never had a hard time writing her name back in preschool. My favorite basketball player’s firstborn, Maria Lourdes Beatriz D. Codiņera, will surely encounter that hardship when the time comes, so I thought. Sigh. Why do parents give their children such a writing burden?
Oh, I must not forget our national hero whose full name is Jose Protacio Rizal Mercado Realonda y Alonzo. Poor students who took up Rizal's biography in college... and blessed are we that we just have to call him Dr. Jose Rizal. It could have been as tough as saying and memorizing pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis!
Years later, things have turned upside down. My questions in mind have changed when I started working with Tsinoys. After the compilation of long names, now I have a long list of short names with monosyllabic family names: Ricky Lee, Queena Chua, Derek Dee, Osbert Tan, Anson Yu, Elizabeth Ong, Dennis Ko, Debbie Uy, Rey Dy, Spencer Sy, and Tiffany Lim to name a few. And who could forget Derrick Chu!
Short names indeed. But why that short?
With growing curiosity and fascination pondering how these guys come about having such short English names, I found D. L. Ashliman' site on folklore and mythology and saw this story:
Once upon a time in faraway China there lived two brothers: one named Sam, and one named Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako.
Now one day the two brothers were playing near the well in their garden when Sam fell into the well, and Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako ran to his mother, shouting, "Quick, Sam has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"
"What?" cried the mother, "Sam has fallen into the well? Run and tell father!"
Together they ran to the father and cried, "Quick, Sam has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"
"Sam has fallen into the well?" cried the father. "Run and tell the gardner!"
Then they all ran to the gardner and shouted, "Quick, Sam has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"
"Sam has fallen into the well?" cried the gardner, and then he quickly fetched a ladder and pulled the poor boy from the well, who was wet and cold and frightened, and ever so happy to still be alive.
Some time afterward the two brothers were again playing near the well, and this time Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako fell into the well, and Sam ran to his mother, shouting, "Quick, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"
"What?" cried the mother, "Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well? Run and tell father!"
Together they ran to the father and cried, "Quick, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"
"Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well?" cried the father. "Run and tell the gardner!"
Then they all ran to the gardner and shouted, "Quick, Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well. What shall we do?"
"Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako has fallen into the well?" cried the gardner, and then he quickly fetched a ladder and pulled Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sarimbo Hari Kari Bushkie Perry Pem Do Hai Kai Pom Pom Nikki No Meeno Dom Barako from the well, but the poor boy had been in the water so long that he had drowned.
Accordingly, since then, the Chinese have given their children short names.
Hmmm… makes sense. But don’t you think they should have used nick names instead? Well, perhaps that's for another story.
Back to the topic, whether the story is fiction or non-fiction, I think it’s a blessing in disguise. Because when you hear Sy, Lim, Ong, Tan, Dy, Co, Yao, Lau and other energy-saving names, you know in an instant that they are of Chinese lineage. And this sense of uniqueness must make them really proud of their roots.