Hayley x Bradley

It occurred to me that I hadn't jotted down my thought process while naming my children. I'd like to write this down, so that next time I can tell them the origins of their name if they ask me.

For both my children, we decided on their Chinese names first before their English names.

Hayley 恩愉

Naming my eldest girl was relatively easy. Long before I even got pregnant, I had already thought of names if I were to have three daughters - 愉，悦，悠. I wanted my girls to grow up happy , joyful and carefree, without a worry in the world. I especially loved "yu" because it rhymes with 鱼仔, the nickname of 杨怡's role in 《On Call 36 小时》which was the drama I was watching at that time. Add the feeling of being blessed with a baby, and her name becomes 恩愉 - “恩典的恩，愉快的愉 ”.

As for her English name "Hayley", I can't really remember how is it that we came to decide on this name. I think hubby and I were kind of going through a list of baby names, and narrowed it down, and finally decided on this name as it sounds so sweet and cheerful and free-spirited. 

Bradley 祺扬

Naming my son was more difficult - I cracked my head well into the third trimester to think of both his Chinese and English names. It was so difficult that I enlisted my parents' help to think of a list of Chinese names. We finally settled on the middle word 祺 which means 吉祥, prosperity and good fortune. While I had thought of names for daughters, hubby had thought of a name for a son a long time ago. He liked the word 阳 to depict a strong and healthy child. How in the end we ended up with 扬 i can't really remember but I think it had something to do with me wanting a Biblical value in the name, hoping he will grow up to spread the Gospel - 传扬福音 as stated in Matthew 28:19-20 ”19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Also it rhymes with 喜洋洋 which also reflects joy and happiness!

As for his English name, well I wanted a Biblical name for him (e.g. Matthew) because we had prayed for this child for so long and I want to dedicate him to the Lord. But hubby couldn't settle with any of the names in my list. So one day I was looking at Hayley's music school concert brochure with all the names of the children who would be performing. I said to hubby, let's look at this and see if there are any suitable names here. And one name just jumped right out at us - Bradley. We were like smacking our heads, it's so perfect! Why didn't we think of this name sooner? Both our children's names would be ending with "ley", which was perfect. Not to mention at that moment Bradley Cooper was all the rage with his movie "A Star Is Born" which we watched after my cervical plug fell out. 

So since we're on the topic, just for the record, if we ever have a third child who is a boy, I would name him Wesley since it's another "ley" and it's a Christian name. Lol!