Name

Between Vivian and I, there was quite a bit of discussion on what name to choose for our new baby.

The name of our first daughter, Euterpe, was my choice. It represents the muse of music and poetry in Greek mythology. (I learnt the name from Ellery Queen’s The Tragedy of Y, where Euterpe was described to be sitting on the shoulder of Science – a scene that particularly interested me.) Although there is a meaning on its own, her Chinese name, Yu Tak (妤德), is by and large the phonemic translation of the English one.

My original plan was to called our second daughter Urania – the muse of astronomy and the youngest sister of Euterpe in Greek mythology. The Chinese translation would comfortably be Yu Wai (妤慧) – “德慧雙修” is a classical teaching of Buddhism and a good principle for our children to bear in mind.

But, Vivian did not like Urania (for obvious reasons). I agreed. After all, the name also gives rise to the famous radioactive element Uranium, which accumulates and is toxic to the kidney; it doesn’t seem to get along well with a nephrologist.

This is the time when I could be superstitious.

PS. We finally settled with Yu Wai as the Chinese name, but Adler in English (suggested by Vivian). For fans of Sherlock Holmes, yes, that’s the name of the woman.