The fun thing about being Chinese is that I have two Chinese names, a Cantonese one and a Mandarin one. They are the same name, just said two different ways. Chosen by my maternal grandmother, my Chinese name is 梅雅雯. In Cantonese it is pronounced as mui4 ngaa5 man4, and it is pronounced as mei2 ya3 wen2 in Mandarin (the numbers represent the tones). 梅 (mui4/mei2) is my surname “Moey”, meaning plum. Other surnames that share the same character are Moy, Mui, Mei, Mai and Mae. The spelling indicates where your family is from such as how Moy and Mui are from Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking regions, Mei from Mandarin-speaking regions, Mai from Vietnam, and Mae from Korea. In my case, “Moey” is pronounced as “Moy” but spelled so uniquely because my father is from Malaysia. 雅 (ngaa5/ya3) means elegant and 雯 (man4/wen2) means sophisticated. My grandmother chose this name because she wanted me to grow up into a graceful and ladylike
The fun thing about being Chinese is that I have two Chinese names, a Cantonese one and a Mandarin one. They are the same name, just said two different ways. Chosen by my maternal grandmother, my Chinese name is 梅雅雯. In Cantonese it is pronounced as mui4 ngaa5 man4, and it is pronounced as mei2 ya3 wen2 in Mandarin (the numbers represent the tones). 梅 (mui4/mei2) is my surname “Moey”, meaning plum. Other surnames that share the same character are Moy, Mui, Mei, Mai and Mae. The spelling indicates where your family is from such as how Moy and Mui are from Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking regions, Mei from Mandarin-speaking regions, Mai from Vietnam, and Mae from Korea. In my case, “Moey” is pronounced as “Moy” but spelled so uniquely because my father is from Malaysia. 雅 (ngaa5/ya3) means elegant and 雯 (man4/wen2) means sophisticated. My grandmother chose this name because she wanted me to grow up into a graceful and ladylike