What’s in a name?
While my English name (Alexander Liang Yule) had been decided upon a month or two before I arrived, my Chinese name caused a bit more discussion. However, today Daddy and 老師傅 went to register my name on the household registry, and so officially named me: 游允斌 (Yo Une Bin). 游 is my family name, while 允斌 is my given name.
In a traditional family, you would expect the father’s father to have a big say in the final naming; however, my grandfather only really knows three Chinese characters (大 中 山 ‘Da’, ‘Zhong’ & ‘Shan’) - he has also had his suggestions for his own children rejected (e.g. ‘Bonzo Chap’ was not taken seriously in some quarters). Therefore, my Mum (with expert held from Dad) made a unilateral decisions on 游允斌.
Pronounced ‘une’ (as in the French ‘a’). Tone: 
(falling then rising)
Pronounced ‘bin’ (as in “Where’s your bin?”). Tone: 
(steady tone)
Means ‘promise’ (as in a promising young cricketer)
Means ‘equally fine in external accomplishments and internal qualities’.
It is made up of two characters:
(’Wen’ 
) which means wise
(’Oo’ : As in you only get an Oo with Typhoo) which means brave
Is a well-known phrase in Chinese meaning ‘good at wielding both a pen and a sword’ (or ‘a man of thought and deed’).
My family name
Our original plan was for me to be named 梁 (my mothers family name), so that I would have my Dads English family name and my Mums Chinese family name. However, we underestimated the power of Taiwanese beaurocracy. When Mum and Dad got married, Dad signed a document to say that he was officially taking the name 游德維; Taiwanese law states that a child has to take the fathers family name (unless the mother has no brothers, so is the only hope to continue her family name). We tried arguing that this law obviously didn’t apply to foreigners who had picked, rather than inherited, their name, but the officials weren’t having any of it. So 游 it is!
