TW: Includes childhood bullying, light hearted conversations, writer notes, and unoriginal classmates.
The journey in finding out my name’s story is quite a tale, but it all started when I arrived in a new country. At that time, I didn’t have an English name, and I remember struggling to write the romanised, Pinyin version of my Chinese name.
Because the pronunciation of Pinyin and Chinese is quite different from English, many of my classmates mocked me by calling me harsh names, or mispronouncing my name on purpose. Sometimes, they would accidentally pronounce it wrong, but it was mostly just on purpose; I would still get upset.
That was when my teacher named me. Funny story, isn’t it? My teacher gave me my English name, not my parents! My name ended up being spelt as “Chichi”, which sounds closer to my Chinese name than the English pronunciation of my name in Pinyin. I remember being quite confused about my name change, and feeling a bit bewildered.
“Did I just receive my English name from my teacher?”
Yet still I was mocked by other, annoying names. Just because my name on the roll was still the same.
A few years passed, and I moved schools, from one to another. I actually got along quite well with my new friends, even if I was a bit unnoticeable. You might relate in some way or the other. Either way, I settled into primary school just fine, until I mistakenly spoke about the mocking of my name at my previous school. My classmates were curious to hear what names they had called me. Because I was obviously a bit dim at that young age, I told them.
And that was the herald of a new year of name calling…
Just to keep this conversation light, “They can’t even be original like my old school? Such uncreative classmates…”
But over time, the name torture decreased, and slowly vanished.
My parents still kept trying to change my English name, even though I quite cherished it, no matter what happened; and I managed to keep my English name.
Eventually, I moved up from primary school, and went to intermediate. I did not tell anyone the annoying names people had once called me—and it all finally ended. Most of the name calling, just… gone within the new year.
I may never forget the name calling, as it stays with me as a memory, but I know that it will stay in the past if I don’t speak a word about it.
Unsurprisingly, my Chinese name has its own meaning, like any other. I’m called 贺丹琦 in Chinese, the Pinyin for it being ‘He Dan Qi’. Maybe you get why my ex-classmates mispronounced my name. If you pronounce ‘Qi’ in Chinese, you actually get something that sounds closer to ‘Chi’. Hence my English name, ‘Chichi’. But if you pronounce ‘Qi’ in English? Not even close to my Chinese name.
Either way, 丹琦 means a piece of ‘red jade’. 丹 meaning ‘red’, ‘vermillion’, or even ‘cinnabar’ colouring, and 琦 meaning a ‘precious jade’, or a ‘valuable stone’. Fun fact—my English name nearly became Jade (a clear mistake from myself, because now I just think it won’t suit me, haha!), but it got entered as ‘Chichi’ instead while enrolling in BBI.
Either way, I learned that my name has a special meaning, like every other pretty name out there, and it has its own kind of beauty.
Writer – Chichi He
Editor – Leo Zhong
Artist – Rachel Feng
–May 2026–
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