Growing up with my mother’s side of the family, my cousin and I were the only ones who had anglicized first names — Scott and Michael. Because those names were relevant to two of the biggest names in basketball in the 90s, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, it made having those names fun. But, for myself, having an anglicized name was one of the things that made me feel disconnected to my heritage. My cousin at least had a Lao middle name to fall back on, while I just had no middle name.
I acknowledge that it’s a privilege to have an anglicized name growing up and living in the United States. No anxiety of people pronouncing my name wrong, one less reason to get made fun of, and I’m certain it helps when potential employers look through my resume and they don’t pay an unnecessary amount of attention to my name. Nonetheless, it’s an additional thing to make me feel the unbalance of being more American than Lao rather than the balance of both worlds.
Sometimes, I think that a name is just a name. But I’m going to be a new father soon, and I’ve been thinking of names for my child a lot lately. Obviously, if people are spending the same amount of time and thought on names as I am, then names do have some significance.
Finding a good Lao name, that is unique while not “complicated” for the American society, is definitely a challenge. Especially when most Lao names are long, and some Lao words that could be a part of the name would make my child a huge target for getting picked on. For example ພູ [phou] means hill or mountain, and it could have a deep meaning. But, let’s be real, kids can be cruel and that’s just asking for a litany of poo jokes.
My partner and I are still in search of a good name, but leaning on a few. Here is a list of Lao words that could be a part of baby names:
* The Lao letters ລ, ຣ, ຫ, and ຮ have an interesting history and have sometimes been interchangeable. Also, sometimes people will say the same words differently because of regional dialect. For example, ໂຮງຮຽນ [hohng hian] — school is often heard with an “h” sound, but some regions in Laos and Thailand may say it with an “l” sound — [lohng lian]. Because of this, I’m taking a little liberty to change the word for the purpose of the name.