Many parents give their children unique names, not following the “standard style” of Vietnamese people. A typical example is the story of the Gen Z girl below!
At the beginning of the story, the girl born in 1997 confided: “There are two things in life that cannot be chosen: parents and name. Especially names, whether ugly or beautiful, are always worth cherishing.”
The girl’s name is Nguyen Thi Gien Ny, and she claims to have the name “Very Western but also very Vietnamese.”. She said her father once lived and worked in Russia and felt that the name “Jenny” was very beautiful so he gave it to his daughter. But when making the birth certificate, her father did not put the name “Jenny” but decided “how you pronounce it, how you write it”.
She confided: “I go to school, bFriends ask a lot about the name. I didn’t know how to say it correctly, so I had to go back and ask my dad, but I still didn’t have a specific answer.
Everyone in the family teased Dad for naming himself after his ex-lover in Russia. Some people say that “Jenny” is the name of the wife of a famous philosopher, because her father admired her so she named her after her. Until now, I still don’t know the true meaning of the name, but as my father said, the name Gien Ny is very beautiful.”
From childhood to adulthood, from school to work, Gien Ny has been accustomed to people’s surprised faces when they hear her name. Friends and colleagues were impressed but also wondered a lot about this name.
“Every time I change school levels, students in other classes hear Gien Ny’s name and think I’m Western, so they often come to see me. Finally, seeing that you are 100% Vietnamese, you wonder, “Why do Vietnamese people have Western names?” Gen Ny remembers.
As soon as she finished speaking, the girl from Thai Binh told her current job
often have to interact with people. Whenever there is something to look for, instead of calling her name, people often ask: “Where is the foreign girl?, while they all know she is Vietnamese. When her husband’s colleagues or superiors first heard her name, they thought her husband was marrying a foreigner.
