Leonard Leao Xi Long

Shakespeare (or some other dude) once said : “What is in a name?”...

Well, indeed what’s in a name? Does your name mean anything? Does it reflect the true you? Does a name discern you from others in the sense of social standing? The enigmas are endless…But one thing is for sure, is that we can’t possibly call each other “Homo Sapiens”…right? Wouldn’t it be weird? Imagine walking down the street and you saw a friend coming towards you and both of you greeted each other:

You : Hey, Homo Sapiens! How ya doin’!
Friend : Great! What about you Homo Sapiens? Didn’t expect you to be here…

Get the picture? Anyway, the above are just my lame introduction before I share with you all the nameS that I’d been called before…nicknames in a matter of speaking. And this post is dedicated to Iwan (who is currently on holiday…), who wanted to know if I have other nicknames besides “Donut”…

A little poster I made for myself...hahaha...I'm bored...

Well, before I start raving about my nicknames, I think I should start with the origin of my birth name: Leonard Leao Xi Long, pronounce as Le-nerd-Leo-C-Long.

The story of how I got the name Leonard was a long story, because at first my name was supposed to be Kenneth. Yup, Kenneth Leao Xi Long…but Kenneth sounded similar to “Kenek” which is a Hokkien dialect meaning “shortie”. So, fearing that their son will be no taller that a bench, my mum decided to rename me Leonard. According to her, Leonard is the name of a lion in a story she’d read years back and it serves as a symbol of strength. So Leonard became my name.

If I were given the chance, I would have settled for being just Leonard Leao instead of the mouthful that is my name. But, my Dad had more ambitions for his son, and like any Chinese man, he insisted on giving me a Chinese name. So I inherited the family surname of 梁 and was given the name 熙隆. Why do I say my Dad had ambitions? Well, he named me after two Chinese emperors who lived the longest and reigned China for the longest period of time. Thus, you can imagine the expectations and the burden upon which I carry my name…hahaha…melodramatic eh?

Needless to say, my somewhat peculiar name has been distorted into a myriad of sound and pronunciations. With which came the long list of nicknames I’d had. My very first nickname was Leonardo Da Vinci which some people assumed was my ancestor…hahaha…and after that when Titanic was a box office hit, I became Leonardo DiCaprio.

In the pursuit of name calling, my fellow classmates had given me odd names that range from food to animals and whatnots. During secondary school, my name was always mispronounced as Leo-nard instead of Le-nerd. I tried to correct people, but nobody seemed to be able to get it right…and soon they start to come out with easier versions of my name. So, I was called Peanut, Leopard, Lemon, Donut and many more…

My upper secondary years were better; friends finally get my name right. But still there are those who just can’t help themselves, not only nicknames were given, tittles were also awarded. I was “Leonard the Bird” to a fellow classmate, “Nard-nard” to another and “Nerdy nard” to a portion of the class. I was even known by the name Lenny to some friends from the Choral Speaking Team!

That’s not all, but it’ll be tedious to say it all, but the most ridiculous name I was called was Double D (a very rapper kinda nick) and 4D…I don’t know why, maybe Pauline would like to elaborate (please do so in the comment section) because she’s the one who made it up…hahaha!

But then again, all of this just make life more interesting, in a funny perspective, we are what we say we are…nobody can take that away, no matter how absurd the nickname was, I will still be me, right? So, what’s in a name? Hahahaha…well, at least my name’s not Pilot Inspektor…

P/S: Pilot Inspektor is the name of the lead actor's son who played the caharacter Earl in the series "My Name Is Earl"...
P/P/S: Hey...share your thoughts on the "What's in a name" question...and tell me your wackiest nickname ever!