The role of 佩 acts as a relationship identifier...so if you had more sisters, then they all would include 佩 in their names to indicate that all the sisters belong to the same generation within a family or clan. If you have access to your family 家譜 records, you will notice the same name pattern is also applied to brothers. This naming system is quite practical. Let's say 周佩玲 has a friend that you never met before and that stranger casually strikes up a conversation with you and you tell that person that your name is 周佩樺. The 周佩 will clue the stranger in that maybe you could be related to her friend 周佩玲 and could open up a conversation about whether or not you know who 周佩玲 is.
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樺 [www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk]
佩 [www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk]
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sueannaj
Hi,
My parents, who are from Hoiping (Kaiping now), gave me a Western and Chinese name when I was born (in the U.S.). I asked my mom what my Chinese name means, and she said it's a type of tree. Even though her English is pretty good, she couldn't tell me exactly the type of tree in English. My full Chinese name is 周佩樺. My mom said 樺 refers to the type of tree. So my two questions are:
1 - What exact tree is 樺?
2 - What does 佩 really mean? My sister also has this in her Chinese name (佩玲). My mom casually calls me 樺 (a-wah) and she casually calls my sister 玲 (a-ling). So I'm not sure what role it plays here.
Thanks a bunch.