Chinese name dilemna Part 2

Let me continue with my story about the name. For those that are reading this for the 1st time, you must read yesterday's post below this one for all of this to make sense.
We originally gave the task of naming Ryder to my dad cuz tradition is that we are named by our grandfather. I gave my dad a few directional ideas so it was easier for him to work with; strong, simple, and hopefully with a meaning that can somwhat relate to valiant & brave which is Ryder's meaning. My dad came up with a list of five: 1)qiang(chiang)=strong 2)huai=reminesce 3)liang=bright&uplifting 4)yiong=brave&courgeous 5)chien(jian)=healthy. We liked all of these, especially yiong which sounded good to us and happens to equate to Ryder in Chinese. We were testing the names out and it was down to qiang and yiong with a strong lean for the latter. Then we started asking a few of our Chinese friends and things started to change. Many of my friends, my age, who all grew up here in Taiwan and are locals said all these names were a little too simple and slightly silly for our son. They said it would really be like naming your son "Brave XXX" or "Strong XXX" and the names pronounced in Taiwanese (which is a completely different dialect for all you non Chinese people out there) would almost sound uneducated or low class. So it was back to the drawing board UNTIL.... my GODMOM came by to visit.
My Godmom is one of the fortune tellers, face readers, palm readers, and gypsy like people I wrote about yesterday. Don't laugh, this is her profession and she makes a living from it, as did her mother, and her mother, and her mother. I hate to admit this, but she is hauntingly accurate, and she has single handedly made me a somewhat believer in all this mystical stuff. I'm a fan of science but over the last 20 years she has really made me question some of my most innate beliefs. Anyway, that's a whole different blog.
Anyway, she comes over to visit Jackie and Ryder, and she wonders what his Chinese name is. I was so put on the spot that I couldn't think of anything to say except the truth. If there was one time I should have lied in my life, this was it. I told her what had happened with the names and that we were at a loss. Once I told her, I knew that I was in trouble and I knew her response without her even saying it. SHE WAS GOING TO NAME MY SON FOR ME!!!!!!!!! She said that this mission MUST be left up to her and that she is the perfect person. I felt like kicking myself for not being quicker to make up an excuse but her intentions are good.
She leaves in calls me back in an hour. I guess that's how much time it takes to input all that information I wrote about yesterday into the crystal ball. She comes back with 5 names but she said one is ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. She tells me what it is and I actually like it. I tell Jackie and she likes it also because my Godmom had listed all the reasons it was such a great name. The name was XXX Shu Ting. 1) The character Ting has the character "rain" within it and supposedly he was lacking water out of the four natural elements so this was good. 2)Ting also means valiant and brave but is more sophisticated 3) total strokes is 37 which is suppose to BE REALLY GOOD 4) it sounded great. Then Jackie asks me why that name sounds so familiar but I shrug. We think for a few hours and we really were very close to picking it but something irked Jackie after a while. She says the name sounded too familiar so she asks me what my nephew Austin's name is. I was at a lost. I really did not know his Chinese name cuz we've called him Austin since he came home from the hospital. Jax tells me to call my brother immediately so I dial him up. I was stunned from his reponse. XXX Shu Ting is Austin's Chinese name. The same exact character, a cousin 6000 miles away! After the dismay, I dial up my Godmom and I feel we are able to choose Ryder's name freely again. BUT after her initial shock she says there's another name that was 1B. Right up there withTing which was 1A but she did not tell me cuz she liked Ting better. All the mystical statistics backed it up also and the name is XXX Shu Shien. We boggle over it for a while and it grows on us. At that point we were like desperate, if the names are so auspicious than why not right? But just for laughs, Jackie says I should call my brother again and asks what's Austin's older brother's name is. JUST IN CASE! She's like, it's one out of a million but just ask and you can also ask their opinions about the names. So I dial up my brother and my jaw drops. One in a million huh? Russell, Austin's older brother is named XXX Shu Shien. I almost died laughing. I later find out that both Russell & Austin had both been named by their auntie who had also consulted the fortune tellers & mystics about their names. I guess they are all logged on to the same crystal ball LAN line and they all run the same "what's my name" software.
That's all I will write cuz this post is way too long and I know people just want to come here for 3 minutes a day just to see a picture of Ryder so they can smile themselves and feel the hope that all babies give us. Well here he is. Actually it's not him, but rather what the little MONSTER did. While affectionately holding him, he decided to unload about half of what he had just sucked out of his mother a few minutes before. Homeboy yacked like me back at a frat parties during my college days. It went all down my t-shirt and onto the bed. I wiped off the solids before Jackie snapped this shot.
The name saga continues tomorrow.