My name means happiness, it means sailing forward. It is like poetry. It is my family’s blessing to me.

 Fan（帆） is my name, it means sailing boat （Yabla Chinese). In Chinese there is an idiom that says propitious winds pushing the sail along the journey (一帆风顺）. The Idiom means everything goes easy and smoothly, and people often use this to wish others good luck on a new trip.  I was named this because my parents wanted me to have a smooth journey without any hardship in the sea of life and always have others supporting me behind my back like winds. 

My last name in Chinese means tall（高）. I always picture myself as a tall sail sailing fearlessly in the middle of the ocean. Unknowing of what's ahead of me but excitedly awaiting for new adventures on the ocean. 

Fan is the real me and it fits me perfectly by representing my attitude towards life, my family’s expectation of me, and my culture all together. I would not like to use any new name and although I do have an English name I still use Fan to introduce myself because Fan represents my Chinese heritage and I found a special elegance in its correlation with poetry.

My name is not very common, because only 14.22% of  Han Chinese have a monosyllabic name. Over 85% of Han Chinese  use two words for a first name which makes two syllables (Pinyin News). There was a period of time where I used to hate my name because it only has one syllable. This makes the name sound unisex since it has one less character to show female correlated meanings like the other girls. But as I grew up, I often heard people complimenting my name and telling me it suits me very well. I eventually realized that I don’t need to be just like all others. Names are supposed to be special, and my name is the best for me because that was my family blessing to me, just me.

Works cited:

“帆: Definition: Mandarin Chinese Pinyin English Dictionary: Yabla Chinese.” Chinese, chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=%E5%B8%86. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023. 

Info, Pinyin, et al. Pinyin News, 10 Aug. 2008, pinyin.info/news/2008/85-percent-of-han-in-china-have-two-syllable-given-names-report/.