Jack's name

Jack's full name will 99.99% be Jack Chuan-Jei Wen. Here's how we came up w/ the name.

Chinese names are typically three characters long: the last name plus 2 additional characters. In the Wen family, we use the middle character as the "generation name". So, most of the kids in my generation has the middle character "Kuo", meaning "country". Jack's generation name is "Chuan", meaning to pass down from one generation to another. Sometimes girls are exempt from following the rules.

Coincidentally, Allyson and I had the name "Jack" on our list, while my mom had been thinking of the chinese name "Jei". Apparently it is also important to pick a character that has a "bright" sound. Any chinese phonetic spelling could have 4 or 5 tones. 1 is a flat tone, 2 is a rising tone, 3 is a falling and rising tone, and 4 is a falling tone. 5 is an "exclamation" tone, but is less commonly used. So, we want the 2nd tone, which is a happier tone (the 4th tone is kind of depressing, which my dad physically demonstrated by drooping his shoulders at the same time). For example, my name is "Wei", which has the rising 2nd tone.

There are at least two characters for "Jei". One of them is the same as Jet Lee's name, except he prounounces it in Cantonese. I don't know what the character means. The other one is the character for "exceptional". I can't write it, but I know it when I see it.

Since Jack sounds like Jei, it's a good match. My dad also agreed. So, when you put all this together, you get Jack Chuan-Jei Wen. No pressure Jack, Mr. Exceptional!