Love Your Name. Celebrate Your Name.

On 21st May, Gurratan Singh, a Canadian politician addressed an issue we believe is very common in Hong Kong. Especially among ethnics.

“I rise today to talk about names. My name is Gurratan Singh. It means “the jewel of the bringer of light to the darkness.” It connects me to my Sikh spirituality and my culture, it's my North Star, and it reminds me of who I am. I think of all the beautiful names that exist in this world. Names like Mun Sum, which means “the literature of the heart;” Names like Abdullah, which means “a servant of God.” I think of indigenous and First Nation names, like Tehoriwathe. A name is more than just a name. When we are born, it's one of the first things that we recognise, one of the first words we learn to say, and how the world identifies us. It’s powerful, and it's why we must say our names properly and have them said properly.

But for many people with diverse names, they often live their lives with their names mispronounced. And they often respond to other people mispronouncing their names by changing their names, and often anglicizing it out of shame. I once met a young student, his name was Japman. It means “the mind which is lovely and imbued towards the divine; a mind that meditates.” But he pronounced it as “Jap Man”. And when I corrected him, he laughed embarrassedly. He laughed like this because, after years of having his name mispronounced, he was ashamed of hearing his name said the correct way.

Often, this issue arises in the classroom where we've made a lot of progress, but the reality is that the staff in our schools still don’t fully reflect the diversity of the classroom. And the result is that the students often have their names mispronounced which often renders them invisible. This has real consequences on students. It hurts them academically and impacts their confidence. Problems like that can often follow them throughout their entire lives.

So I rise to say, let's celebrate our names. Let’s celebrate the unique differences that make us who we are and let’s work to create a society where our names are signs of pride, signs to really hold within us and something that we can all celebrate collectively. Thank You!”