Origin of Your Name

From a public speaking seminar I attended recently, I learn that a good topic to discuss during ice-breaking session is to tell people the origin of your name.

As required by legislation, everyone regardless of nationality, race, religion or social status must have a name. If you are an IT programmer, you would associate a person's name to a variable name in a computer program, which is used to uniquely identify an object. In this case, its a good practice to have a meaningful name for the variable so that the codes can be read and understood easily. However, a person's name cannot uniquely identify the person and is usually given based on background or cultural belief.

Lets get to the main topic which I shall first tell you how I got my English name, Royston. This English name of mine was actually given by my godmother who is a good friend with my mum since school days. Perhaps as Singaporeans, we always use the term, Christian name when we refer to English names like "Peter, David, Mary, Jane" and so on. I feel that the correct term should be English name as having such western names doesn't equate the person as devoted to the Christian faith. My mum felt Royston was a unique name and liked it so much that she decided to register it as my official name which would subsequently appear in all official documents like identity card and educational certificates. However, my paternal grandparents disliked the idea of a Chinese having western name. As a result, only my Chinese name was registered officially.

In fact, my English name wasn't used until my uni days in Australia. Westerns always find it hard to pronounce foreign names especially Chinese ones. Hence, having an English name in a foreign or international environment would enable others to remember and called out easily without hassle.

I wonder how many people out there would attempt to find out the origin of their name, whether English or native. I am such a person who will do so. According to Wikipedia, Royston is actually the name of a town in south eastern England. From what I read, a lady by the name of Roisia erected a cross at a prominent junction in the town which gives it name. Hence, Royston is also referred to as "Royse Stone". After knowing this story, I believe that the origin of a person's name will influence his/her characteristics as my English name associates me with England and somehow determine my affinity with English cultures. This is true as I like watching English musicals, consume western food and pastries and culture.

Start finding the origin of your name today and you could be amazed by the findings!