Driving everyone crazy

I think the family is about ready to say yes to anything just to get me to stop asking, "So what do you think about the name ______ ?" I have probably thrown out close to 50 name ideas. Everyone generally comes back to the first name they heard, her internet pseudonym: Erin. I've been resisting it for different reasons, none of them that significant.

I finally came around to a new way of looking at names - the way she will read and write her name - in braille!

First I looked at how her Chinese name looks in Chinese braille (just the part we're planning to keep). Turns out that it doesn't translate well. The ending vowel sound in Chinese uses the same pattern English braille uses for "sh" (which will come in handy when she learns her new last name!). So to braille her Chinese name will take 4 cells in English (one for each letter), compared to 2 in Chinese (beginning sound + ending sound).

Her name as it looks in Chinese Braille (but in English is "g" + "sh"):

 


Then I started looking at a few of the more popular names on our short list. Turns out that only Erin can be brailled with 2 cells because it uses 2 contractions - "er" and "in". Braille takes much more space than print, so to make it somewhat more efficient a large number of contractions are utilized. The best analogy might be to think of the old stenographer's shorthand.

Erin as it looks in English Braille ("er" + "in"):

  
So considering all the other things she will have to learn switching languages, etc. and the fact that (nearly) everyone else seems to like Erin just fine, it seems the best thing to do is to
go with Erin.

I'm sure everyone will be thrilled that I won't be driving them crazy anymore - at least about names! ;)

PS ~ Yes, I really do over think everything!