It's no secret to my friends that In-Hye, my 5-year old daughter, is the biggest daddy's girl around.
I'm 100% responsible for it too, I know. She is "untouchable" to her little brothers and
frankly, I don't know what this is going to lead to in my and her lives.
So, here's an uncovering of one of the crazy Korean cultures or customs.
Many Korean people pay for a list of "auspicious" or "good luck" names
to one of these fortune-tellers when a child is born. We did it too
with my boys but with In-Hye, I did the reverse. I wanted to name her
myself (which isn't so special in the American tradition but definitely a rarity
in Korea) and asked this Swami dude if the name In-Hye had anything bad
attached to it. He said it was a great name and it'll strengthen my relationship
with her even more! (as if that was possible).
In Korea, we always say and write our last names first, so for her, it
would look like this "Choi, In Hye". It all comes from the Chinese characters
that instills meaning to each of the three syllables.
For some reason, I felt like the sound
of it reminded me of those "classic, female,freedom fighter" names in Korea in the
1930's. The trend now in Korea with young parents is to name your kid with a name that is
phonically "compatible" with American names, such as "No-Ah", "Gi-O",
"Jo-Han"...etc. Me? I wanted my first child's name to be as Korean-sounding as
it gets, yet totally easy to pronounce. You see, I've had a history of having
my Korean name mis-pronounced by almost ALL of my past teachers and classmates
when I first came to the US and I promised myself never to let my child
experience the same thing, ever. Another reason I try hard to memorize my
students' names and keep mindful about pronouncing the names accurately!
It is hard to mis-pronounce her name, "In Hye", it's as straight forward as it gets,
but some people still do. I truly LOVE her name, not because I named it, but
because it sounds classy, independent, and smart. I sincerely hope she one day becomes
all of that.
A secret that even my wife doesn't know about my inspiration for this name?
Enter Ms. Ines de la Fressange - I don't know how many people remember her
as the top model for Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld in the 80's, but
when I was spending my junior year in college in Paris as an exchange student,
Ines was THE face of Chanel. Remember when we all had our first big crush
on celebs? Ines was it for me :-)
She too was one of those classic and sophisticated looking models who seemed like she could be well off not doing the modeling thing.
And she looked like someone you could find on the streets and not necessarily on the Paris catwalks.
I had at one point thought about giving my daughter Ines as her middle name too, but thought that was too corny for a Korean girl living in the States. Think about it - In-Hye Ines Choi?? What?!?!
Nah...too cheesy...
I instead opted for Alice as her middle name - another classic, simple, uncontroversial name. She already has a Korean name that will stand out from all the American names in her classroom, so I went for efficiency, if you will, over glamor and glitz.
I hope In-Hye doesn't come back from school in the near future and complains about her friends making fun of her name. Kids will do that to you, I know, but once she grows out of it, she will one day thank daddy for making her name somewhat unique and different.
I gave her the name but it's In-Hye who will have to carry that name proudly. And she will...
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