what's in a name?

As the famous play written by Shakespear quotes, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose,by any other name would smell as sweet."

hey..*nudges* WAKE UP!! Hope you haven't fallen asleep yet..

So to answer the questions.. What's in a name? Are names very important for an identity? Are you happy with your name? I'm certainly happy with mine, both my english name as well as my chinese name. Mervyn... I guess I like the name coz it's not very common. It's to a certain extent unique. and I've always taken to a liking of names that posses weird alphabets like X,Y,V,Z,Q.. the name I'm most fascinated is "Jaci Velasquez" Look at all thsoe alphabets weih..all in ONE name. J,V,Q,Z.. super cool..sounds exotic if I may say so..

Anyways, as much as I love my name, there are cons to mine. First off, the pronunciation. I find many people, especially the majority of this country come up with all sorts of out of this world variations with the sound of my name. The most common of them all is "M-AIR-VIN".. I mean the majorities say "merdeka" "MER-day-ka" right? They don't call it "M-AIR-deka". They even "laungkan" it seven times every year,for goodness sake!

The next blunder is I'm often mistaken as "Melvin" or "Marvin" although i don't really mind "marvin" as much coz it's near my original name so I understand that the slight difference might not be recognized as it is not very obvious. However, melvin and mervyn sounds a load of difference. I mean can't people diffrenciate "lllll" and "rrrr"? Imagine if it can't be distinguished. It will be "rough out roud" instead of "laugh out loud"! It's kind of annoying sometimes especially after correcting them numerous times and yet "Melvin" finds it's way out of their mouth! Do I look like a "Melvin" to you? Btw,that was a rhetoric question!!!

The next injustice often done to my name is it's spelling. It's M-E-R-V-Y-N..NOT mervin, marvin or any other deviation.

Here are two live happenings that have occured throughout my life regarding my name:

At the end of Form 5

REALITY 1
*teacher calls me to hand in my exercise book, I did it accordingly, bringing it to her desk for her to "tick" my name on the name list indicating that I passed up my book. My friend hollers my name the correct way. She looks up surprised*

teacher: Nama kamu mer-vyn ke?
me : ya..
teacher: ohh, saya sangka nama kamu mair-in.
me : taklah..
teacher: oh maaf. Itu sebabnya saye tak banyak panggil name kamu karna saya sangka nama kamu mair-in,macam nama perempuan!


SEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE?????

what happened to the poor "v"? totally invisible.



REALITY 2

First week of college..

*a math algebra question was on the board, teacher asks for a volunteer. No one voluntereed.
me:*in my heart* please don't pick me, please don't pick me..I haven't done maths in half a year"
teacher : Okay, since no one volunteers I shall pick someone.*picked up the name list and ran his eyes through the list, making up his mind the victim of today's math lesson*
"MARRILYN, IS THERE A MARRILYN IN THIS CLASS?"
me: *in my heart* yes! lucky i din kena today

-so crushed my hope when he said.. "MARRILYN CHUA"?
me: *in my heart* oh crap! I think he means me..
*I stood up and made my way to the whiteboard.*

*teacher looked up in amazement and quickly rereviewed the name list*

*upon realising his mistake*
teacher:Oh,Mervyn..is that how I say your name?


SUPER EMBARASSING I TELL YOU!!sigh..

I can only hope no more of these mistakes will occur but I have a feeling there are worse to come. So far the best are the Indian lecturers at my college . They say my name perfectly first time off, no boo boos or blunders. These I appreciate to the very much. I love my name,so please do not try to destroy it. Thanks!





Mervyn Mouse


Author
Sylvia Creche


Illustrator
Roger Twinn


Book Title
Mervyn Mouse


Series
401


Date
1980


Description
Mervyn Mouse

my favorite book when I was young for obvious reasons. =)