'I should probably have chosen your name.' said my dad when he heard my mum having difficulty getting her family name through on the phone.
'My family name is quite inconvenient in Japan, isn't it.'
What? His or her family name is MINE too. What does it mean our name is inconvenient in this country?
'Well, it doesn't really matter.' says mum 'cos I always had difficulties with my name in Munich anyway.'
She had a Japanese surname before she married to my dad then got a North German name, which had not been understood easily in South Germany either.
'I wanted to have just one name for us all and I'd had the Japanese family name long enough to get a new one, you know.' she goes on, 'I wish I could have changed my first name as well.'
My mum used to receive letters with 'Mr' or 'Herr', the German equivalent because of her first name. If you have a name with 'o' at the end, it is recognised as a male name in Europe like marco. But if you are a Japanese female person, it is quite usual to have a name with 'ko' at the end, like my mum.
'Do you remember when I found out that I'd had a male reference number for my pension registration and health insurance in Germany? And you asked them on the phone for me "what if MR Koike gets pregnant?" said mum to dad. 'And they asked for my birth certificate to correct it. THEY made the bloody mistake in the first place, right?'
Blimey, a name could be that complicated. And she did get pregnant after a while.
From her experience, my parents needed a careful consideration before they decided on names for their daughter. I have a Japanese name and an European one, and I love them both. My dad is especially happy with them.
'You have chosen really beautiful names for our daughter, honey. They are just perfect.' says mum.
I wonder if I want to keep or change my family name when I have a chance to choose in the future. Maybe dad can pick up a good one for me.
