What’s In A Name? (姓名与环境)

If you say that the “science of names” (姓名学) is part of our occult treasure, then I would rather choose not to believe in this practice. Even though there were and still are many people come to me to ask for auspicious names; I only reply them:

 

“Whatever names you opt will be fine provided that they’re not against the norm (犯忌)!”

 

Perhaps now you would ask: “What did you mean by ‘norm’?”

 

I think some examples would be in order…

 

Story 1

 

Mr. Fischer is my German pal who was a proud owner of a restaurant in Penang. We were acquaintance when we serve a German manufacturing company a few years ago. Fischer decided to settle down in Penang and engage in his restaurant specialized in German cuisine. Fischer’s business was extremely good and earned himself quite a small fame within the German communities and some western food lovers in Penang in relative short time.

 

Fischer’s success has made him ambitious and wanting to expand his restaurant business to Ipoh in the central part of peninsula. Prior to the execution of Fisher’s plan, we met in his restaurant to have a mug of beer as usual and I cautioned Fisher on his ambitious move as Ipoh is not in sync with his name ‘Fischer’ or ‘fisher’. You see:

 

Ipoh is known as a ‘town amongst hills’ (山城), there is practically no place for a ‘fisherman’ to catch a fish on hills! If a fisherman stay put in Penang Island, then there are certainly plenty fish to catch!

 

However, Fischer wasn’t a superstitious person and we bottom up on our last bear before this gentleman opened his second restaurant near a shopping mall in Ipoh Garden.

 

I visited Fischer’s Ipoh branch one night after my errant for a supper a year later only to learn from the boss that his business wasn’t very good although the number of customers were encouraging in the beginning. In fact, I was the only customer on that night!

 

Story 2

 

John and Xiang (香) are two lawyers opened up a law firm in downtown Penang. They decided to name the law firm “Xiang John” (香佐) associates. Well, the “Xiang John” means ‘kaput’ or ‘finish’ in Cantonese. The best part of this story is that their law firm is facing a florist parlor and a casket distributor!

 

We may call it all attributed to their bad karma, the law firm ended business in a relatively short time. This is really in line with ‘kaput’ as the meaning implies.

  

I supposed the failures of above two stories may or may not relate to their names; what I am sure is that one can never change one’s luck by changing his/her names alone. That I can assure you as I have personally consulted many people who has altered their names and yet still faced with bankruptcy.