ESL100 Spring 2026

  The Achiever      My name is Naila, which has Arabic roots. It means the one who achieves, the gracious one or even the one who obtains. I honestly love it, not only because of the precious meaning of it, but also because I was not named after anyone, which means a lot to me. I don't feel weirdly related to anyone or have a surprising bad story about its origin, which makes me feel more unique and helps me be myself in general. It can be negligible for some people, but for me it has always helped me develop my own personality and build confidence. I also share my name with my best friend that I met six years ago, and that is more than heartwarming. I feel like we are like twins or even soulmates. What made us that close was our name, both of us were surprised by that coincidence because we also share a lot of values. We both want to achieve our goals, work hard and enjoy being gracious and true to ourselves.

               My name is Qiting He, and I am from Guangdong in southern China. My hometown is Kaiping, a small city famous for its unique architecture. My grandfather was an accountant and loved reading newspapers. In our family, it is a tradition that the oldest member names the children, so he chose my brother’s and sister’s names. My brother’s name is “永乐”-Yǒng Lè, which means wishing him happy forever, and my sister’s name is “敏仪”-Mǐn Yí. It means that the girl is very smart. My name was chosen by both my parents and my grandfather. Before I was born, my parents found the character “绮-Qǐ" in the Chinese Dictionary, and love it because it symbolizes valuable and beautiful things like silk. My grandfather chose “婷-Tíng” as the second character. It is similar to my sister’s “仪-Yí”, and they all have the meaning of elegant and quietness. Interestingly, I am not a person that matches my name very well because I feel like I am very n...

  January 30, 2026 Saul Terry ESL 100 My name Fifth Generation I used to be called by so many names. When I was seven years old, my uncles and cousins used to call me "chato"; which means short in Spanish. It was due to a popular TV show where one of the main characters was a little kid kind of similar to me called "chato". Over the years, I kept growing taller, even more than my older cousins who used to call me chato. The funny fact is that they were calling me chato even knowing that I was taller than most of them. Despite how I prefer to be called or how my name sounds, I'm really proud of the history behind my full name. It remainds me my ancestors, my identity, and my origins because I'm the fifth generation in the family named Saul Terry. In short, I really like my name for many reasons, but if I have to talk about it, I can say that I feel privileged and lucky because in my family only the first born son can be named S...

I know it might sound a little weird, but the truth is, my name  可莹 Keying  was given by my older brother when he was not even five. When my parents heard of it, they thought that is a nice name, which can be connected to good words like “cute” and “smart”. To be honest, as the one who has to live her whole life with this name, I don’t like it that much. When I was little, whenever my family talked about my name, it always came with the story that my name is probably from a girl that my brother loved in his kindergarten.  I don’t like the feeling that my name might not represent me, and this feeling got stronger as I grew older and knew that I have another name given by my mother. She wanted to name me  思凝 Sining,  which contains her best wishes for me . “ I hope you could be good at thinking and focus on thinking all your life whatever you are doing. I hope your heart will keep clear no matter what you will come through.”   That   is the explanat...

Name Journey   I have not always known the history or story behind my name. I  haven’t  ever asked my parents. When I lived in Venezuela, I had two last names, one was my mother’s, the other was my father’s.  The name had two  characters, which  was  required by the law. Everyone’s name  had to  both mother and father’s last name. When I  was  ten  years old, I went back to China. I used my Chinese name, due to using  foreign names is unusual in China. In addition, everyone only has one last name. Although I had two last names, I only used my father’s last name during the time in China. Before we moved to the United States, my parents got divorced, so I only use my father’s last name. I  don’t  plan to change my name in the future.  

  ESL 100 Wei Li January/15/2026 Awesome Name        My name is Wei Li ( 威李 ). It is a Chinese name, so when it is translated into English, it sounds weird.   I never asked my parents or family why they named me “Wei Li”.   However, I remember my father told me the word “Wei” means awesome.   In Chinese, Wei ( 威 ) also means power, prestige, and majesty, so my father hoped that I would be a great person.   To be honest, I don’t think there was a history or story behind my name because it’s not unique, but my father told my he had another option for my name when I was born.   Unfortunately, he didn’t use that one because he didn’t like the way it sounded.   On the other hand, I have an English name which is full of story.   When I knew I would come to U.S., I realized I needed a new name, an English name.   I thought a lot and found names such as Mike, Carl, William, because I wanted to sound like an Ameri...

Julian Ulloa  ESLINT 100 CE 30/1/26 From Father to Son Many years ago, I was sitting with my father in the central park of my hometown that is called Acacias meta-Colombia, and I decided to ask him why he called me Julian. He started to tell me the story.  I was very surprised because he told me that my great-grandfather was also called Julian, and then my grandmother gave my father the same name in honor of her husband. The day that my father married my mother he told her that the day they have a son he would like to call him Julian. My mother said yes it sounds beautiful. Now I feel so happy to have the same name as my dad and great grandfather, because it represents a lot for me. It gives me motivation every day to achieve my dreams because they are fantastic people and they are so proud of me. When I moved from Colombia to The United States, it was a little bit challenging with my name because the pronunciation is different than in Spanish. The first day I heard someone m...

 Lei Bi January 29, 2026          My name is Lei Bi, and the Chineses characters are "毕磊"- Bi Lei. In China, the order of the name is opposite to The United States, and usually put the last mane first. For my last name. I inherited my family's name, Bi, which can be traced back to the Zhou dynasty and our ancestor is "毕公高"- Bi Gonggao. My grandfather gave me my first name, "磊"- Lei, which translates to three stones in English. The first name means that I should be straightforward and honest when I deal with anything. Although the sounds of the characters make sense, I don't like it because they are too positive and stiff. After I started to think for myself and see the world with critical eyes, I knew that the world is not black or white, and there are many grey regions. It means the world is complicated, and everything is changing. Thus I need to play with balanced arts. Conversely, I want a smart name which presents flexible, changeable and knowl...

  Jialuo Wu ESLINTG 100   CE 1/29 /202 6                                                                   From Jialuo to Jason Most Chinese people believe in Feng Shui, and their names usually involve Feng Shui. Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese philosophy that deals with balance. When most Chinese people are born, their parents would like to give them a name that is consistent with time and place   of their birth . My name is also is consistent with Feng Shui, and it was given to me by my grandfather. When I was born, my mother wanted to call me " 嘉嘉 Jiajia". The character means excellent in Chinese. My mother wanted me to be outstanding and smart. My grandfather was a teacher and knew a little bit about Feng Shui. He said I lacked fire, so he named me " 烙 Luo". " 火 Huo" means fire and passion. My grandfather ...

  Angel EstrellaVilorio   ESL 100   January 28, 2026   Shadow   My name, Angel, comes from my father, Angel, whose name is the same. My second name, Sebastian, was my mother’s choice. Before  I  was born, they were thinking about what  my name was going to be, so my father decided to give me his first name and my mother decided to give me, Sebastian, as a secon d name. I know my first name comes from my father, but even if Angel is my first name, sometimes  I  believe Sebastian is my actual name because it represents my   true   identity  and show s the real me. People only see my father’s shadow on me and that has created the  comparison  over the years.  Every time  some one saw me, they always saw my father on me. My first name symbolizes my resemblance that I am my father’s copy  because we share different things like our hair, face, hands and  height. All of these features  create th...