旻㥠. Minseo. The correctly pronounced version of my name is Min-Seo. My parents would say, “Min-Seo ya, grab the Korean pancakes for me” and “Min-Seo ya, let’s go to Korean School.” Everyone in Korea pronounces my name as Min-Seo. Well, this was when I lived in South Korea. In America, it’s different.

I learned that I have several names here in the United States. The most common ones are Min-se-yeo, Min-soyo, and Min-soo. The substitute teachers would always add a remark before saying my name… “Oh, I am going to pronounce this one wrong, but is Min-se-yeo here today?” I felt that Min-se-yeo, Min-soyo, and Min-soo sounded too non-American, it sounded too complicated and non-White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Oh! how much I envied simplistic names like Ava, Emily, and Olivia! Part of me wanted to change my legal name completely, but part of me just couldn’t let go of my Korean identity.

The first part of my name, “Min” or “旻,” stands for sky. Diving into the details,  “旻” is composed of the characters “日” and “文,” each representing sun and letter. The sky is fair to everyone, the sun shines on everyone equally, letters can be learned by everyone, and anyone can create a new word by composing different letters. Although everyone has the potential to create a new word, not everyone has the capability to actually express that potential. However, my name says that I can. My capability can be seen by everyone under the sky and my talents can be highlighted like the sun.

Then, there is the second part of my name, “Seo” or “㥠.” This represents wisdom or brilliance, but as can be seen, it is composed of many mini letters. The long line with the two dots represents the heart, the top symbol represents bottom, two intersecting curved lines mean human, and the half-opened square represents the moon. Like how intricate “㥠” is, I value how hard and complex my 할아버지 or grandpa thought towards making my name. He told me that the bottom most of the man’s heart exists in the human's true nature; whether it be jealousy, greed, and love. By naming me “㥠,” he told me that I have the ability to clearly look at the true nature of human similar to how a moonlight is clearly reflected upon water.

While each definition is thoughtful of who I am, quite frankly speaking, these definitions make me sound old and even sage-like. I am only a kid! At one point, such intricate and deep meanings in my name coerced me to consider taking a philosophy class to define who I truly am. I find myself protected by my name, especially when I can detect and interpret situations earlier than my peers, but I feel it is quite a heavy gift for me. Therefore, I define my name, 旻㥠, little differently than what my Korean family does: “Being gifted.” I believe I am gifted because I have so many people who genuinely care about me. If I hadn't, who would have spent so much energy and time thinking of such a great name for me? In that sense, I cannot get rid of my name. It is my history, it is my culture, it is my love. I am simply proud to be called 旻㥠.