OznAsia

There is a young woman who lives in the building where I'm staying in Bangkok named Roxanne. No, Roxanne is not a Thai name. Roxy, as she is known, is Philippinno. She was staying here when I lived here two years ago so she's been here a while. She teaches English at a primary school nearby.

Yesterday when I went downstairs to fill up my water bottles at the ionised water machine she and Titee were sitting having a chat so I joined them. At one point we got talking about names and their meanings and Roxy said that her name meant 'sexy girl'. This didn't make sense to me. Would a parent give such a name to a little baby knowing that is what it meant?

I checked online to find the meaning and I have to say that the site I found disagrees with Roxy. According to this site it has two optional meanings 'graceful rose' and 'dawn'. Nothing there about sexy girl.

I noticed that the site also gives meanings of last names so I decided to check 'Shield'. Here it says that our name means 'dweller at Shields (shepherd's summer hut)', guess that makes us shepherds or 'one who made armour'. (Is that armour or amor?) On the same page it shows a small family crest which links to a page that offers to sell you a larger version. Personally, I wouldn't bother but I notice that as well as suggesting we had something to do with pigeons the crest gives a family motto 'Vincit qui patitur'.

Isn't the internet wonderful. A few years ago that would have stumped me but it doesn't take long to do a search and I discovered that it means 'He who endures will conquer/succeed.' So, to all family members reading this who might be having a tough time now or in the future just remember, hang in there, you'll get on top of it in the end.

Labels: family