A Treasure


            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 noisy. 


In Guangdong, I used to meet a lot of people with the same first name as me. When teachers called  “绮婷-Qǐ Tíng” in class, several students often responded. Therefore, our teachers had to distinguish us by calling our full names. I do not think this is a bad thing because every child is a treasure to their parents. My name is also a treasure from my family, and I love it.




Comments

  1. Naila BencellaFebruary 1, 2026 at 8:53 PM

    I love the story behind your name! Thank you for sharing Qiting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BillyFebruary 3, 2026 at 8:05 PM

    I finally know your "绮婷“. It is really elegant name.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aria HuangFebruary 6, 2026 at 7:45 PM

    I love how your name is written in Chinese, it is really beautiful!

    ReplyDelete

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