What's in a name?

For the people who really know me, you'd also know that Rei Shiori is definitely not my real name. It's my pen name, pseudonym, alias, whatever you want to call it. Well, honestly it sounds pretty awesome to me. I don't know about what anyone else thinks (Hey Mum and Dad, yeah my name's a little different when I'm in blogger space...hehe) but personally I love it because of the meaning behind the name.

I'm a pure blooded Chinese on both sides of the family and an ex of mine wasn't the only one to frown on the fact that I AM UTTERLY BESOTTED BY JAPAN AND EVERYTHING ELSE IN IT well and also the fact that I would love to be a cat (call me Neko or Kitten, meow). Culture, names, language, food, poetry(haiku, yes I know it's called haiku), art, anime, manga, you name it I probably love it. Almost anything and everything Japanese, to be honest. Except wasabi. Boy do I hate that stuff. Don't be fooled by that pretty colour and nice little flowery shape they made it into in that picture down there...that was and still is a big offender of my taste buds.*shudder*

Wasabi, the taste bud offender(in my opinion).

Enough about the wasabi. You're welcome to try out the offender at any sushi bar nearby while I continue on scribbling in this blog post of mine.

Back to my current alias. Rei in Japanese has pretty nice meanings and if anyone has noticed, it's the only part of my alias that has anything to do with my real name but hehe...I'm not telling my real name. Here's the many meanings of Rei taken from this link: http://www.20000-names.com/female_japanese_names.htm

REI (1-鈴, 2-零, 3-麗, 4-霊): Japanese name meaning 1) "bell," 2) "nothing, zero" or 3) "lovely," 4) "spirit."

The second part of the alias took me years to settle on though. At first I had an obsession with Amane. I can't really explain why. Just felt it was a good pairing. Then I wanted Mei as the second part of my alias a few years later. Only now have I discovered that Rei Mei means dawn (thanks to the manga Reimei no Arcana, go read it if you have time to spare, it's awesome stuff) which is exactly NOT what I am. Dawn represents nothing to me at all. Nada. Then I started writing poems. I'd always loved writing stories, but poetry was pretty much touch and go to me when I was in primary school. Only in high school did I really start writing poetry constantly. Poetry became my new best friend when everyone turned away from me and it kept me going even when I didn't feel like writing stories and later when I was depressed for a long time. So Shiori became my new choice.

SHIORI (詩織): Japanese name meaning "poem; weave."

Well, there is another interpretation for Shiori that can mean 'bookmark' but I suppose I quite like that too. I am a bookworm after all and  although I rarely use all the pretty little bookmarks lying around my tornado-hit chaotic mess of a room, I do use my memory as a bookmark. Seems legit if that's the alternate translation for my name.

I must admit I'm guilty of having an obsession for naming things. All my toys had names. Even down to the tiny patchwork teddy bear I bought in high school. Every character in my collection of short stories had meticulously planned names.

Hanami-hime(the pink bear with the rhinestone bow) and Scarlet who belongs to another friend of mine.

I wonder if there's a name for the obsession of naming things...Obsessive Naming Disorder? There I go naming things again....

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
~Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare~