The Story of Jesse
At work, my name became an issue again. Two departments have been merged into one so it's time for some re-introdcutions. We were in a circle and one of my new teammates asked me anew what's the story behind my name. Again, I explain to them that Jesse is a very common name not just in the Philippines but also everywhere else in the world, and that it's usually a guy's name. See, for Thais, Jesse is simply a girl's name.
I did a search on famous people and characters named Jesse and I came up with these:
Jesse - Biblical father of King David. Think Jesse Tree.
Jesse McCartney - an American singer and actor, latest work is lending his voice to the character of Theodore in Alvin and the Chipmunks (When I was a kid, I thought this was "Siadore").
Jesse James - a famous American outlaw in his time. There's gonna be a movie about him starring Brad Pitt.
Simply Jesse - an oldie Rex Smith song that goes "And I don't know how I knew it..." Why the song is called that is lost on me as Jesse is never mentioned throughout the song.
Jesse Owens - an African-American athlete who made headlines by being black and winning in the Olympics in the thirties, which was unthinkable at that time.
Jesse Bradford - American actor, to play leading male role in the Hollywood version of My Sassy Girl
Apparently, however, these characters don't ring a bell in Thailand so maybe to eliminate confusion, I'm gonna shorten my name to just Jess. That sounds about right, they tell me.
And they said Philippines is a macho country.
Now that I've come to think about it, I've actually had several nicknames throughout the years. At home, because I have a "Junior" suffixed to my name, I am called Jun. Fine, Jun-Jun. Dammit. In grade school, my classmates plainly called me Jesus, and some teachers Junior. But I have this other classmate already called Junior (also had a Junior suffix to his name) so to minimize confusion, I was officially called Jesus.
Growing up, I felt uncomfortable being called Jesus. Who wouldn't be? It's, you know, God's name, as in Jesus Christ. I'm not worthy. Whenever someone calls me Jesus I am usually tempted to reply "Yes, my child." So I had people call me by my last name instead, which is Siason. A lot of people are too lazy to utter the two syllables so they shortened it to Sia (as in "Sha"), and then later Siang, because as it is in the Philippines, we would usually add "-ng" to a one-syllable name ending with a vowel.
Examples:
From Sherwin: Sher - She (short e sound) - Sheng
From Rowena: Wena - We - Weng
From Palangga: Gaga - Ga - Gang
Fast forward to early college, I would usually introduce myself as Jun. But then I also began hearing people I don't know call me Chu. The reason is because in Zamboanga City (I'm not sure if it's also the same case in other places in the Philippines), it is usual for someone named Jesus to have the nickname Chu. I have no idea why, beats me. So people assume that my nickname is Chu. They don't know I have a Junior suffix so had no idea I could be called Jun for short.
I never did like being called Chu. I thought that it sounded like a dog's name. Like Chu-huahua. So I started to ask everybody to call me Jesse. Now Jesse is the more reasonable pet name for Jesus. Jess is also okay, but I liked Jesse better. The inspiration for the name Jesse is actually my father. We have the same first name (I'm a Junior, remember?) and his nickname is incidentally Jesse. It made sense to me that since we have the same first name, what the heck, why not nicknames as well?
And the rest is history. Those who already knew me as Chu would still call me Chu, and my new friends and acquaintances would call me Jesse. When I started working and moved to Manila, I had everyone call me Jesse once and for all. If I retain the Jun I know I'd never be taken seriously at work. Come on.
And so in a nutshell, here's the historical outline of my nicknames:
Jesus - Junior - Jun - Chu - Jesse - Jess.
Lord knows what I will be called next.
Filed under
everyday,
thailand
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