yaying zheng  (vivian) 

                                                                      My Name

         In China, a name usually presents a kind of meaning which parent’s hope their children will emulate as they grow up. However, my mom told the story about my name. I took a while for me to get my name, but it’s an interesting story.

        My mom said I gave myself my name when I was two years old. She said when I was born, she didn’t give me a name immediately.  One of the reasons was she never thought I would be a girl, so my mom didn’t prepare a girl’s name. Another reason was a traditional and culture traditional of China. Most families always want to birth a boy, including my family. My mom had pressure to birth a boy. Moreover, there was a policy for family planning, which was birth control. Each family was limited to two children. Before me, I had a sister, and Chinese Government did not allow my mom to have a third child. Consequently, I was given to another family member to take care of me, and I didn’t get into household registration book because my mom wanted to have a boy.  After one year, my little brother was born. Certainly, my family got a huge fine. Afterward, my mom wanted to put me into the registration book. One day, she asked me what I wanted for name. I spoke out “ya, ya”. Therefore, she went to the name list to find the Chinese character and syllables. Ultimately, she made my first name as same syllables “ya”, which means elegance.  However, I am wild and active in reality. The middle name was hard to find, so she gave me the name Ya Ying Zheng. Zheng is our family name, so I didn’t get to choose that.