Be prepared for another rambling post. It’s a mystery where the post will end up. Let’s start……
Here is my Chinese name ………
My very wise parents chose this name for me and I am often told either that the name suits me or that I have lived up to the name given me. It is pronounced “ci liang” and means “kind and good”.
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be named “rich and famous” but I guess that is not a bad thing to have a name like “kind and good”.
One has to be careful with Chinese names because characters with similar sounds can mean something totally different. For example, my brother’s name actually means “kind dragon” (which I think is really cool to be called a ‘dragon’, don’t cha think?). However, with just a slightly wrong pronunciation and accent, such as might be said by a Westerner with no experience with the Chinese language , then “kind dragon” will suddenly be transformed into “pig sty”.
It is precisely because of all these mispronunciations of my name when I studied in the United Kingdom that I decided to adopt an Anglicized name.
I chose “Calvin”. I like “Calvin”. However, in retrospect, it was not the wisest of choices.
If you were to look up the meaning of the name “Calvin”, it has only one unfortunate meaning…………”bald”.
BALD!!!!
Oh, yea. Good choice there squirrel. Can you imagine a bald squirrel? No bushy tail? Not a pretty sight, I think.
Many years ago, I went to Geneva, Switzerland and got to see a statue representing a rather famous “Calvin”……………John Calvin – a key historical figure of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The statue is part of a series of Protestant figures in what is called the “Reformation Wall“.

Calvin is the second from the left. Now, I am not 100% sure, but don’t they all look bald to you?
Apart from being an important church figure, they also named a beer after him called Calvinus Beer. I tried it. It’s okay but not great……certainly won’t put hair on your head.
Strangely, there aren’t a lot of famous ‘Calvin”s. The 30th President of the United States was a ‘Calvin” but he is mostly known for being a bit strange and being a man of few words. The story is told that a matron, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, “I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you.” He replied, “You lose.” Another tale relates that upon learning that Calvin Coolidge had died, Dorothy Parker reportedly remarked, “How can they tell?”
The only other ‘Calvin” that people seem to have in their consciousness is “Calvin and Hobbes”.

Now I don’t mind that association cause Calvin is kinda cool but it gets a little tiresome when people keep asking me “Where’s Hobbes?’
Anyway, what does your name mean and are you happy with it?