What's in a name?

I have always been one for unusual names and names with meaning or a story behind them. Maybe because of my own name... Amorisa Malika. Amorisa is America and Formosa put together. My mom being an America and my dad being from Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa - beautiful island), they put the two together and got Amorisa. It also means "beloved". My middle name, Malika, is Swahili for "angel". My mom learned some Swahili in her 20's thinking she might go to Africa on a mission trip, but it didn't happen. So I got my middle name from it instead.


So the reason for this post is to tell you how XuXu got her name...

Early on in our adoption, I think before we even applied to our agency, I was reading online adoption stories. I came across a story with a little girl whose Chinese sir name was Xu. (I can't remember the rest of her name and I can't find the story any more.) Well her new adoptive parents called her Xu Xu. And not knowing how to pronounce any Mandarin at the time, I thought it was pronounced Zu Zu (its really more like shu shu). I thought that was the cutest name ever and it went so well with Zion (our son's name)!

So I asked my dad (who is fluent in Mandarin) a little later what the sir name Xu meant. He said "It could mean 'red' or it could mean 'pearl' and two together shows emphasis, as in 'very red' or 'rare pearl'." Well that sealed the deal for me right there! Our daughter WAS a rare pearl. So we have been referring to her as that ever since. In pinyin (Mandarin spelled out in the English alphabet) it is spelled Zhen Zhu and pronounced more like Tsun Tsu. But for American ears and tongues and because it goes with Zion it is XuXu, pronounced ZuZu! Also we just like it that way.

Her middle name Lynn is to honor the Chinese side of the family. My dad's sir name is Lynn spelled Lin in pinyin. My dad changed it when he immigrated to the USA from Taiwan.

That's the whole story. (Zion's name has a long story behind it too, I'll just have to tell it later.)