THE NAME GAME 5

In the mad rush to Christmas and the end of 2007, let’s take a holiday from business, numbers, and accounting.

How do you account for the names parents give their children?

http://www.taxgirl.com/thank-god-its-friday/ got me to dig up an email I received a few months back on the funny / weird name games Filipinos play.

A RHOSE, BY ANY OTHER NAME (last in a series of 5)
by Matthew Sutherland

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches” –(Proverbs 22:1)

But here in the Philippines, wonderful imagination and humor is
often applied to the naming process, particularly, it seems, in the
Chinese community. My favourites include Bach Johann Sebastian;
Edgar Allan Pe; Jonathan Livingston Sy; Magic Chiongson, Chica Go,
and my girlfriend’s very own sister, Van Go.

I am assured these are real people, although I’ve only met two of
them. I hope they don’t mind being mentioned here.
How boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with
names like John Smith. How wonderful to come from a country where
imagination and exoticism rule the world of names. Even the towns
here have weird names; my favorite is the unbelieveably- named town
of Sexmoan (ironically close to Olongapo and Angeles).

Where else in the world could that really be true? Where else in
the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal
Sin? Where else but the Philippines!

Note: The Philippines have a senator named Joker, and it is his
legal name.