Beautiful Treasure

Given Hong Kong's history, it's not surprising that many middle-aged folks have an English name attached to their Chinese name.

Most would have been assigned their English name in school or by some other administrative body, hence the preponderance of monikers common in England (though these days kids are content to name themselves, with an amazing array of results).

Unlike mainland Chinese names, many of which consist of a surname and a single first name, many Hong Kong first names are composed of two names (hyphenated), which are often confused by Westerners as a first and middle name.

Take Kwok-leung, for example. As you can see, in most instances a Hong Konger's English name isn't going to be a clean, phonetic equivalent. The closest I can come up with is Gordon, and that's stretching it.

However, in my wife's case, her given English name (Mabel) is an almost perfect match with her Chinese name. In Cantonese, meih bou (美寶), pronounced may-bo and sometimes Romanised as Mee Po, is an obvious parallel of Mabel.

In Chinese meih bou means beautiful treasure. Bou can also mean precious. The meaning of Mabel is thought to be either lovable or my lovely girl, depending on which source you believe. Anyone who's met my wife would affirm that all the meanings apply to her.

And while some people think that Mabel is a dowdy name that conjures images of grandmothers in floral-print house dresses, I enjoy that it's not as common today as it was in the late 19th century. However, there's a high probability that any Hong Kong woman you know named Mabel has the same Chinese name as my wife, which is a testament to its popularity here.

Whether they're also beautiful treasures isn't for me to decide, nor do I care.

I've already discovered mine.

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