When I was born, my grandfather wanted to make sure I would have a happy and successful life. He used Yin and Yang and the Five Elements Theories to make sure each Hanja character (Chinese character) made my name portray good things for me. The result he got from Yin and Yang and the Five Elements Theories was the name Gillyoung. According to Hanja, it means good luck. However, my mother was planning on giving me an English name like Gloria because she thought Gillyoung would be a hard name to pronounce for English speakers. After some thinking, she decided to make the decision depending on how well the nurses pronounced Gillyoung. The result: my mother decided to keep the name Gillyoung.
   

Although, I was surprised that some teachers or adults assume that my name belongs to a boy, not a girl. In 6th grade on the first day of school, my English teacher was taking attendance and said my name correctly.

Suddenly, a male student came into the classroom and apologized for being late. The teacher assumed that the student was Gillyoung and said that he came in right on time. I was shocked from this event that my voice would not come out, so the class had to tell the teacher instead of me that I was Gillyoung. 
   

Besides some people thinking my name belongs to a boy, some people and still today, have some trouble pronouncing and spelling it. Some pronounce it with a soft “g” sound instead of a hard “g” sound. Some people spell my name with one “l”, and others put an “i” instead of a “y” in my name. I do not get bothered by people mispronouncing my name, but I do get annoyed when people put a space between it.  The space between my name creates people to assume my first name is Gill, and my last name is Young. When I was in 1st grade, I thought my name was easy to spell and say because it was like a compound word like mailbox, butterfly, or even fishbone. A gill is a part of a fish, and young is the opposite of old hence making my name a compound word.
   

Since my name has the word gill in it, I do have some interesting nicknames related to fish. In 8th grade, a guy called me Gillfish to tease me and still calls me that today. My cousin loves to call me Fishy whenever I meet him, and my sister sometimes calls me Fishsticks when she is in the mood to poke fun at me. I also have cute nicknames that have nothing to do with fish. Some teachers and students prefer to call me Gilly or Gill, and my friend takes pleasure in calling me Gippo because I yawn as big as a hippo. I do not get offended by all of these nicknames, but they are unusual to have. I love my name the way it is even though people have trouble spelling and pronouncing it. My grandfather chose the right name for me because I had many lucky things happen to me like winning the jackpots at Dave & Busters. I am proud to have my name as Gillyoung.