Be nice

Xiaoci Weng

January 19, 2025

Be nice

      I have a meaningful name that my father gave me. However, it is difficult to write my name in Chinese characters for beginning learners of Chinese. When I was a child, I didn’t like my name because the structure of my name is really complicated. My name in Chinese characters is “翁晓慈”, which has totally thirty-three strokes. What annoys me a lot was that some of my friends’ names were very easy to write, like “可欣kexin” and “伟文weiwen”.  I needed to spend more time than them to learn how to write my own name. However, after knowing the story behind my name, I changed my mind and thought it is a wonderful name I owned. My father told me that the word 晓（xiao） in my name means know and understand, and the word 慈（ci） means kindness and friendly. He wanted me to be a friendly person, so he named me Xiaoci. Practicing more to write my complicated but meaningful name is worthwhile as my name is filled with my father’s expectation. I hope to be as friendly and nice as he hopes me to be.

MY NAME

 ESL100 

Ziqing Liao 

January 12, 2025 

My Name 

My name is Ziqing Liao, and there isn’t any special story behind it. This name was chosen by my dad. My mom told me that she gave a lot of choices to my dad, but he chose this name for no reason. At first, she wanted to name me Yiyi because my birthday is on January 11th, which is a combination of two ones, but my dad disagreed with her choice because he just thought Ziqing sounded beautiful. However, I do have some good feelings about my name. When I read my name, the two words that come to mind are child and sunny. The character 子Zi   in Chinese means child, and the character 晴 Qing  in Chinese means sun and sunny. When people read the word sun, it always feels warm and pleasant. Maybe my dad gave me this name because he wanted me to be an optimistic and kind person who can bring others joy and fun and can live happily like a child without worries. I also hope that I can have an easy and happy life, without worries, just like the meaning of my name. I hope this name can bring me good luck and strength.

Princess Rania

January 31, 2025

    

    Most of the time, it’s said that a person’s name tells a little bit of who they are. My name is Rania, and I absolutely love to be named Rania. According to my parents it means princess of God in Islam, but apparently when I search for the meaning on internet, it has several meanings: side gazer, queen and the heavenly one. My mom decided to name me Rania because she loved the meaning, and still calls me princess even now. For me, hearing Rania immediately makes me think of a bright, friendly, smart and gorgeous lady.  

    When I was younger, everyone called me la belle et douce Rania, which means in English the pretty and fresh Rania. My sister was sometimes jealous of that, but I always thought she had no reason to be jealous because she is named Kenza which means God’s treasure in Islam. There is actually a story about Rania in the Quran. In Islam Rania was a stubborn woman who never respected religion, but then she found healing  in the Quran and converted into Islam. I think with this story, I’ll define Rania as someone responsible and mature and who is conscious of her actions. By the way, the queen of Jordan is named Rania, a funny fact right. 

     To sum up, Rania as a name is defined as a queen, the gazing and the heavenly one,

but as a person I will define myself as a joyful, shy, conscious, fragile, smart, strong and beautiful woman. My name reflects exactly the person I am. 

                                 

Healed

 Rapheal ileleji

January 13, 2025

ESLINTG 100

Healed 

    

     I was named after the arc angel Rafael from the Catholic Church from my father’s side. When I think about my name, I think versatility because of the range of ways it can be spelt and pronounced. However, the unique feature about my name is the way it’s spelt. The e comes before the a, which is uncommon for this name. It is always Rafael, Raphael, even in one of my country's dialect, Yoruba, there is an iu which makes it Rafiu, all meaning the same thing which is God has healed.

    I also think about history because it’s a three generational names of arc angels from my grandfather was named Micheal Angel Micheal, my father whose name is Gabriel Angel Gabriel and now me as Rapheal, Angel Raphael. Do I wish my name was spelled like the commonly accepted one. Maybe, but it doesn’t really matter either way to me, but one thing I know for sure is that I will always be Ra-fell not Rafael. My name is Rapheal.

 

Ibrahim Toure

ESL 100-CE

January 14, 2025

My story

In Mali, my country, all newborns are named after a family member or friend. I was named after my grandfather, who was also Ibrahim Toure. My father gave me that name because currently in our culture most people want to give their child the same name as their father or mother. It is a way to be grateful towards the parents. My father has few siblings, so I have many cousins also named Ibrahim. In order to make a difference, we all have our nicknames, and mine is Iba. In addition, all my sisters and I have a common middle name Sidi, which is our father’s name. Ibrahim is a Muslim name, and the first one was a prophet. In many countries, like here in the U.S, people used to directly ask me where I’m from when I say my name. Maybe because some people are not used to these kinds of names. At first when I came from Mali, I wanted to find a nickname more common to use here. However, when I really think about it, I like my name, and I’m just going to push people to get used to it.

who I am

Maria Fernandes 

January 15, 2025

Who I am

            A person’s name is their identity. My parents named me even before they knew I would be a girl. They say they always knew the first child would be a girl. My name is quite long, Maria is my first name Beatriz is my second name, Frigerio is my surname, and Fernandes is my last name. Bia, from Beatriz, is how I am called in my county, Brazil. Bia is a dreamer, a girl who wants to discover the world and be free. However, the world that Bia knew was a small town with the same characters almost every day. Bia wanted more. I wanted to see different cultures and fly with my own wings. For that reason, I moved to the United States, and after a long path, Bia became Maria. Maria is the girl who is becoming a woman. Maria is discovering the world, the confident girl-woman who is learning about life and creating good memories. I like my name, or my names because they represent who I was, who I am and who I am becoming. The most important thing to me is the fact that the person with the name Maria Beatriz Frigerio Fernandes will always have the same identity.  

A Gift

 Aissata Toure

ESL 100-CE

January 13, 2025

        

                                                 A Gift 

                                 

       Aissata Toure, that is the name that my parents decided for me when I was born. However, they used to call me Aisha when I was growing up. My name came from my father's cousin, my aunt, Aissata. My father lived in her house when he was studying in the university in France. She is the one who welcomed him when he got to the country. Perhaps, it was a way for my parents, especially my father, to thank her for everythings that she has done for him. In addition, in my religion, Islam, Aisha 

is the name of one of the prophet Muhammad’s wives. There is a special story about her. She was a well-known, respected and brilliant woman in the story of Islam. She also contributed to the spread of the message of the Prophet Muhammad in the Muslim community even after his death. Aisha is also known as the mother of believers in Islam. Sometimes, when Muslim people ask my name and I say Aisha, they will say. Ohh mother Aisha because of the respect that they have for Aisha. In Arabic, the name Aisha means alive which corresponds to me because I am a happy and energetic young woman. I feel lucky to have such a beautiful, special and amazing name. I believe that my parents gave me a really nice gift when I was born. At the beginning, the name Aicha was chosen by my parents but now I chose it. My name is Aissata Toure and I am proud to wear it.

                                 

Nicknames

 

My name is Maria Alejandra. In Colombia, almost everyone has two names. My first name, Maria, is my grandmother’s name too. It has a catholic meaning, which refers to Virgin Mary. I do not like my first name because I think it is a name for old people. The majority of grandmothers in my country are called Maria. In contrast, I like my second name, which is Alejandra. It does not have a meaning. My mom liked the name and the combination with Maria. I like it because it is a long name, but I have different nicknames. My family back home called me Aleja, my American friends call me Ale, and my Colombian friends call me Al. When I came to Chicago, I realized that for some Americans my name is difficult to pronounce. They called me Alexandra, Alejanda, or Amanda. For that reason, I presented myself to them as Ale. However, even if I do not like my first name, it is part of me for a reason. I would not like to change any of my name because it would be change one part of me and my personality.  

Sometimes I feel like a chameleon, because everyone calls me in a different way. I like it