What's in a Name? Part II
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| Image source: Kai Chen Blog. |
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| Kim, meaning 'gold' (metal). In Korean: 금. |
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| Eun, meaning 'hill'. In Korean: 은. |
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| Jung, meaning 'government'. In Korean: 정. |
Chinese name: 金垠廷.
Korean name: 김은정.
Romanized Korean: Kim Eun Jung.
In Part I it was promised that I would explain our compatibility based upon our Chinese characters. Please note the first character is identical in both of our names. The second character contains the radical of the character for 'water'. The third character, on the bottom half contains the Chinese character for 'tree'. See the previous post for a refresher on these symbols.
If you have Asian characters enabled: 金溫柔.
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| 'Water' radical, found in my name, (see previous post). |
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| 'Tree' character, found in my name, (see previous post). |
My wife's second Chinese character, Eun, or 'hill' contains the character for 'soil' or 'earth'. This goes well with the two characters from my name (tree, and water), therefore we can be considered compatible. If, for example, my wife's name contained the character for fire...
What do you think would happen with a fire and tree? Or how about fire and water? These, as you could have guessed, are antagonistic to one another, and it would not be a good mix, perhaps causing problems in our marriage.
This is part of the process before arriving at marriage in Asia, or specifically in Korea. One might visit a Jak Myeong So (작명소), a fortune teller of sorts, to determine the compatibility of a partner's name.
| 'Soil, earth' character, found in wife's name. See second character, Eun. |
Please keep in mind that these are the opinions of the East and not necessarily representative of our own. We are of a different mindset here in the West. When these names were given to us they were not given due to superstition but based upon the meanings of the words, and their Biblical heritage. I hope you have enjoyed this.
Sources:
- Reading Chinese Character Tips
- Wiktionary: 'Soil, Earth' Character.
- Wikipedia: Radical (Chinese Character).
- List of Chinese Radicals (See entries: 32, 75, 85).
- Wikipedia: Hangul (Korean Alphabet).
I just learned something new today! :)
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed, and I find all this fascinating. It makes more sense with part II involved. It's like your names represent a scenario or a visual, and of those two scenarios or visuals could mesh without creating chaos or something just generally bad, you're a good match, do I have it right? I think I've got it, and that's just awesome to me.
ReplyDeleteI over think x_x
it's destiny!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Shutterbug and Jay. I hope that you can show the world how awesome you are at writing Chinese after today. Maybe not... but it's a start. I know close to nothing about Chinese myself!
ReplyDeleteD4, I'm glad it makes more sense to you now. This was the first time I've tried a two part post and was curious if it had people guessing what the next part was. I think you're right, and the only reason I cannot say more is because I don't even know if I'm completely sure msyelf... heh. I think there are many other types of things that do and don't go together and they're probably all common knowledge to Asians. Obviously fire and trees don't mix, but maybe there's stuff like salty and sugary in names? But maybe that would be a good thing in Asia? Over thinking is great, I do it all the time!