my Japanese name Tokyo
that's my Korean name Chung Jung
jae-hyun it's pronounced Ling way home
even is my last name Kong first name is
King Kong the two together mean bright
presents target means warrior and all is
like a suffix that sort of denotes dude
so it means warrior dude young means a
friend from the city shin means trust I
was born in the city I guess I am
literally as a friend from the city
this is two wood characters put together
it basically has like the meaning of a
forest this first character stands for
steadfastness and perseverance and then
this second character is the second half
of the word music my dad faced all this
racism after being in a concentration
camp
there's a lot of strength and a lot of
fight in my blood one thing I do know
for sure that is that my grandmother
gave me this name so I can become a
someone you can be trustworthy my older
sister and I have the same first
character but hers is the other half of
music which is pretty cool because my
sister and I actually turned out to be
fairly musical people the number of
strokes it signifies like like the
elemental properties of your name my
name had a lot of like water element to
it she needed to use fire to balance it
out
I think that most of them are getting
for my mom because she's a single lady
because my dad passed away when I was in
hell she literally raised me and my
older brother by herself the meaning
bright being that's what my parents were
hoping I'd become and it's exactly what
I grew into I'm glad that I have a
Japanese name and I think every time I
write my name it's a reminder of all
that strength for a long time I kind of
like to pretend that I didn't have a
Chinese name and that I just never had a
middle name
this is part of my identity this is part
of who I am and it's been with me since
birth I'm Rachel and I'm a
korean-american I'm Nikki and I'm
Singaporean chinese-american I'm Maggie
and I'm korean-american I'm Chris and
I'm Taiwanese Cantonese American I'm
Evan and I'm a Korean American my name
is Sean and I'm a Japanese American I
was almost named Phillip