What's in a name?

I was reading this book (see picture) recently and came across Chapter 62 "Stay True to Thy Name". Here, the author wrote, among others, her experiences living in Texas, USA, when there was some confusion as how to address her Chinese name. I had similar experiences when I studied in Australia and later US of A a long time ago. So I want to share them with you here.

In Western culture, the name is written like this : Helen Jane Sinclair. What we call 'surname' (i.e. family name), they call 'First Name'. So it goes like this :

First Name : Sinclair

Second Name : Helen

Third Name : Jane

Thus our friend Helen would be addressed as "Miss Sinclair". Sometimes just call "Sinclair!"

You follow me? So when I wrote my name : "NAZLI BINTI ABBAS", they would call me "Miss Abbas". That's not so bad. Sometimes just "Abbas!". At times I just ignored them because I told them they were not calling me but my father! I was only joking. I knew that was their way. At other times when I was already back home, I received monthly magazines from a noted organization in Ausralia addressing me as "MISS BINTI Abbas Nazli". Funny or not? The writer mentioned above experienced funnier still, she being Chinese. Her name "Lee Su Kim", so she is Miss Lee as we know. Remember the orang putih put the surname last. So she was called "Miss Kim". Nowadays I notice some Chinese names written like the orang putih one e.g. "Cheng-Neo Chua". My married Malay friend worse still. Her name was Zuraidah Abdul Rahman. They called her "Mrs. Rahman" whilst in actual fact "Mrs. Rahman" was her Mother. And then another friend, "Ahmad Bin Abdullah". They called him "Mr. Abdullah" ... his father lah. All so confusing! Now my First Name is 'NAZLI".

Do read the book mentioned. It's very interesting and funny as well. A lot of anecdotes to make you smile ... thank you LEE SU KIM.