[A Letter to My Child – Part II]

Dear Son,

Time seems to move very fast when you are busy.
You are in your 31st week and we’ll be visiting the gyne later on.

Your mum and I have decided on your name.

You know, a name is the actually the first emotional gift that a parent gave it their child to unify the bond between them. Every individual child’s name is special in their parent’s ear and every name has a different meaning.

Perhaps due to the fact that I was born in an uneducated parents and being Taoist, there wasn’t any English name for me.

One of the earliest questions that I was ever asked was, “What’s the meaning of your name?”
I went home and asked my parents as I was totally unaware.

“Oh, cos one of cousin was named Wen Yi, so we followed his “Yi” and named you “Shun Yi” loh” my mum explained.

“Har? Like that only arh?” and I thought I was special.

“No lah, we want you to be filial and righteous that’s why we named you “顺义” which is 孝顺，讲义气!” my mum followed after seeing my dreadful look.

31 years on, I looked back and asked myself whether I’m a filial & righteous guy.
I hope I’m, I wish I’m more.

Your mum’s name” 红梅” was named by her grandfather.

Her explanation of her name’s origin was based on the first sight of the newborn where your great grandfather resembles one “林黛玉” character in Dream of the Red Chamber 红楼梦.
I never had a chance to ask him why he wanted to name her this way.

Both your dad and mum grew up using our English name rather than our given name.
But we’ll never forget the story and meaning behind our name.

We hope to give you a name which is meaningful yet unique and easy to call.
We want to name you “Alvy Lim”
It may make you sound like a branded bag but there is a special meaning behind this name.

Alvy is Anntonii Lim Vanilla Yu