Cui Ying Wu Ms. Yang
3/3/07 Fundamentals of Writing
The history of my English name
When you know a person, you must know his or her name. Name is the symbol of a person in school, community and country, it accompanies that person a whole life. So people will not ignore their names. Name is very important to everyone, some people also believe good name can give people good life. Even though most of people named by other people when they born, many of them would like to choose another name by themselves, search different names and choose one can bring them benefits.

Since I was a child, I thought my Chinese name sounded very strange. Therefore, I always wish I can choose a name I liked for myself. In China, just a few people change their names and it is so complicated. Even though I want to change my name, I think it was too difficult for me to do it, furthermore my family and friends already get used to it. However, after I cam to America, I made friends with some Americans. They asked me if I had an English name. I thought of “When in Rome, do as Romans do”, I also thought that it was time for me to choose a name I liked. So I decide to pick an English name I really like by myself.

I searched thousands of English names for female in many different ways. I pay attention to English names wherever I saw and whenever I heard. I also looked up some dictionaries and books to find an English name which was simple and sounded nice. Unfortunately, I had searched for a long time, I still could not find one satisfied me. I felt a little depressed about it. One Sunday morning, I watched a Cartoon show with my cousin at home. Suddenly, I heard a special English name that I never heard before. There was a girl who owned a symmetry factory; everything in the factory was symmetry. Her name sounded very nice and it was easy to spell “A-V-A”. One the show, it said that the writing of this name was also symmetry. I think it is so meaningful to me, in my mind, it is such an special and lucky name.

I get many benefits from my English name. After most of my friends and teachers know my English name, they call it easily and comfortably, this is good for our communication. Especially, my history teacher, before she knew my English name, she just could remember my face, it was too hard for her to pronounce my Chinese name. Even though I told her thousands of times, she still forgot absolutely. Now she can call me whenever she wanted. Our relationship between teacher and student is better that before, I feel we are closer to each other. Furthermore, when I learned how to pronounce “v”, most of the time I did not pronounce it correctly. After I got this English name, I can listen the correct pronunciation of my English name when people called me, and when I tell people my English name, I also can practice to pronounce “v”. Therefore, I can pronounce it correctly now.

I like my English name very much. When I talk about it, I always have lots of interesting things to say. It seems as my good friend, we know each other very well because I chose it by myself and searched it for a long time; I also got many benefits from it. To me, it is my helpful partner. I will not change my English name no matter what happen in the future.