Name etymology theme - Essay Example

My s' Etymology 2007 Outline: A) What is the significance of the for a human being B) My s and their etymology:1. Mai - the name popular in many countries. Its Vietnamese meaning.2. Thi - the most popular second name for females in Vietnam.3. Nguyen - the name of the famous dynasty.C) Names of people as the reflection of history.Thesis: Proper names of people do not only have personal significance, but also reflect the history of the nation and humankind in general. A human being is an amazing creature consisting of a number of different internal and external aspects, and one of them is his name.

The role of a proper name in every person's life is very significant. Once a baby is born, the ultimate dream of the parents is to make him or her happy, and they try to choose the name that will ensure this happiness. Name is a kind of "document" that is believed to be related to our temperament, character, and even fate. So, what is the meaning of my name In Vietnam, a person normally has a surname (second, or family name), middle name, and first name, so my full name is Mai Thi Nguyen. Neither of these names is rare or unusual for my country, yet there are some interesting points to concentrate upon while researching their etymology.

First of all, I would like to mention that my first name, Mai, actually exists in several different cultures and languages. For instance, Mai is as popular Japanese name meaning "brightness" (www.babynames.com). In some languages of the Native Americans, Mai meant "coyote" (www.babynameworld.com). Mai can be regarded as a pet name from Margaret (from Latin "pearl") or Mary (from Hebrew "bitter" or Latin "the star of the ocean"). The name Mai exits in the Swedish and Chinese languages as well.

In Vietnam, the names given to the girls normally have literal meanings associated with beauty or art - very often the etymology of the names is connected with the names of flowers, plants or birds. So, my name Mai in Vietnamese means "cherry blossom". (Female Vietnamese names) In Vietnamese, Mai is a very popular name for girls, and as far as my family's history is concerned, the reason why I was given this name was that my Dad obviously wanted me to be very much like my Mum whose middle name is Mai as well, and therefore he insisted that I should be named this way.

Thi is, according to the research, the most popular female middle name, and it means "ancestry", "clan". (Meet Ngoc Anh, 2002) The meaning of the name Thi is "poetry" (www.bubbaboo.com) or "poem" (www.babynamesworld.com). All in all, for the Vietnamese culture, the middle name is of a particular significance as it bears a very special meaning: either indicates the generation of the person, or separates the branches of a big family, or indicates a person's birth order in the family. The etymology of my last name is, perhaps, the most interesting of all my three names.

My family name (Nguyen) is one of the most popular in Vietnam, and it is also the name of one of the dynasties that had been governing in our country for quite a long time in the past (1792-1883) and contributed to the immense development of Vietnam's cultural life, architecture (making Hue the most beautiful city in the country with its exquisite temples and palaces), and also extended the country's border into Laos and Cambodia and closed Vietnam to the penetration from the West isolating its sea coasts.

(Early History of Vietnam).In Vietnamese, the surname Ruan is known as Nguyen, which is the most popular family name. Although not all Vietnamese who bear this family name can trace their roots back to their Chinese ancestors, Nguyen is clearly a Chinese name. Many Vietnamese with this surname claim their ancestor to be a man called Ruan Cho, who was a governor of ChiaoChih (North Vietnam) during the Chen Dynasty (600 A.D.). (Origin of Ruan, Yuen, Nguyen, 2000) Nguyen, which is, as it has been already said, of Chinese origin, means "pray", and "is pronounced Run (Ruan) in Standard Mandarin and Yun (Yuen) in Cantonese".

(Nguyen, Wikipedia) "Ruan" means a musical instrument - something similar to a lute. The names of people are a part of the history of each particular nation and the entire humankind in general. It has been proved by the scientists that the names reflect the fantasy, outlook, art, and everyday life of people, important historical events, as well as social and economic development of the community. All people in all times and civilizations have always had proper names. And surely, almost all names bear a distinct sign of the epoch they appear and function in.

Work cited1. Early History of Vietnam. Retrieved on February 26, 2007 from: 2. Female Vietnamese names. Retrieved on February 26, 2007 from: 3. http://www.babynames.com/Names/name_display.phpid=25514. http://www.babynamesworld.com/meaning_of_Thi.html5. http://www.babynameworld.com/m-girl.asp6. http://www.bubbaboo.com/meaning-of-baby-names.aspn=Thi7. Meet Ngoc Anh. December 21, 2002. Retrieved on February 26, 2007 from: 8. "Nguyen", Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved on February 26, 2007 from: 9.

Origin of Ruan, Yuen, Nguyen. Famous People in History, 2000. Retrieved on February 26, 2007 from Yutopian database: