Life Journal

If you're interested in reading my reflections on the Life Journal Bible readings, check out Ian's Life Journal blog.

Monday, 31 December 2007

What's behind Joni 仲妮's name?

She's kind of named after Joni Eareckson Tada, and kind of named after Ian -- Joni is a name derived from the same Hebrew name as Ian, יוֹחָנָן which means "יהוה, (God) is Gracious" -- and kind of named after Juliane -- Joni sounds like Juliane -- and kind of named after Confucius -- Confucius' 字 (courtesy name) was 仲尼 and we feminized it by adding the 女 radical.

Why Confucius? Well, actually we chose the English name first and then only came up with a Chinese name that sounds similar. My father came up with a bunch of suggestions for Chinese names and presented them to us. I like a lot of what I have read of Confucius' original teachings (or supposed original teachings, since Emperor Qin Shi Huang 秦始皇 destroyed his original works) for a lot of it sounds very Biblical -- including the Golden Rule. So of all the suggestions my father made, I liked this one best, and Juliane was agreeable to that suggestion.

2 comments:

Dave said...

Lovely name! Wonder if u have written something on confucius before ie what you find compatible with the christian faith? Mind sharing? :)

Ian said...

Gosh, it was 20 years ago that I read Confucius' teachings... I can't remember anymore, except for the Golden Rule, which Confucius stated in the negative: "Never impose on others what you do no choose for yourself."