When I was pregnant with Claire and thinking about a Chinese name for her, I knew that it had to have the Chinese character 雨 for “Rain” in it. After all, my Chinese name is 美雲 meaning 'Beautiful Cloud' and clouds give birth to rain.

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One of my favourite storybooks is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

The themes of love and sacrifice are intrinsically intertwined in our lives and it helps to always reflect on where we are, where we've come from and where we are going.

This column is my 'journal' of sorts, to explore the intersection between the roots and wings of this life.

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I asked one of my good friends to think of a name for Claire and he chose the name 雨轩 (Yu Shuen) which he said conjured the image of a little house on the mountains, shrouded in mist. I found that to be a beautiful and poetic image. However, he decided to change the character 轩 to 萱 so as to give it a more feminine quality since the character 萱 would sound the same, and hence evoke the image of the original character, but the new character, with its floral, feminine quality, could also evoke a new meaning of "Water Lily" in its expression.

As for the English name Claire, we were down to two names, Claire and Chloe, but we wanted to see the little one before we named her.

Once we saw her face after she was born, both Kavin and I agreed that she looked more like a "Claire". The name "Claire" itself is of Latin origin, meaning "clear" or "bright". With her big bright shiny eyes, the little one seemed to take on the name with ease.

Just this past All Saints Day in November, I reminded Claire that she was named after St. Clare, a religious nun who was one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi, and who founded the order of Poor Clares.

Claire responded by asking me if I was named after "St. Mom", to which I smiled. She proceeded to make me a nametag with crayons and paper.

And that’s another name I’ve recently held. "Mom" or as Claire calls me "Mama".

It has been said that there is nothing sweeter in the human language than the sound of one’s own name.

Scientific research seems to confirm this as well. Scientists have discovered that five-month-old babies are not only aware of their own names, they use it as a social cue to guide their attention to events and objects in the world. Scientists have also found that our brains respond differently to our own names than to the names of other people.

I’m sure that’s all true. But I must say, that since I’ve embraced motherhood, the sweetest name that I’ve had is that of "Mama".

Mother. That’s a name that I will always be growing into. For our names are the book titles of our lives.

And this chapter has just begun.

Read Corrinne's earlier column on the significance of her own name.  

Top photo by Corrinne May.

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