For all the Kevin Tiens out there . . .

First of all, a little background on how I ended up with the name Kevin.   You see, Kevin isn't my given name.  My given name, Ting-Pei, was given by my grandfather, and it has a special meaning.  And I am proud of it.

I heard the United States of America is the land of liberty and freedoom.   It's a land of pro-choice.  But...when I first came to the States in the 80s, and needed to register for the local high school (Lynbrook High in San Jose, CA), the Japanese-American administrative assistant told me to come back tomorrow with an English name or don't come back at all.  I was confused.  How is "Ting-Pei" not English?   You look at each letter individually, each of them is English all right.  But somehow when you put them together as a name, it's not English?  Why the heck did my parents pay all that money to have my name and all the records translated into English then?  I wonder now if I had a name of French origin, say, Jacques, or of German origin, say Gustav, would I be given the same treatment?

But I grew up in a society where teachers and school officials are highly authoritative.  So I didn't think of anything but obeyed.  My God sister chose Kevin for me.  Well, I didn't know at the time, but according to babynamesworld.com , Kevin means gental and lovable.  I guess it isn't bad.  But it's ridicilous--why did I have to change my given name for 15 years just to go to school in America?  What was the school thinking?  A few individuals alone can really ruin the reputation of this country.  So, Lynbrook High School, if you are reading this, shame on you, and you do owe me and this country an apology.

Anyway, so I was never thrilled about the name Kevin.  I finally had it changed back to Ting-Pei officially when I naturalized as a US citizen.  But Kevin is still with me on all sorts of records...and on this web site.  After all, it is what people know me as now.

Friends or stalkers (yeah, stop looking around, that means you!) who try to get any information about me would usually search for the name 'Kevin Tien' on popular search engines.  And many have found my web site this way.  I got curious one day and did a search for 'Kevin Tien' myself.  Suprisingly, there are many Kevin Tiens out there.  'Tien' isn't quite a common last name.  I would think 'Kevin Tien' would be even less common.  But hey, apparently there are quite a few others out there with the same name.   Did any of them not have a choice like me?  Well, for all the Kevin Tiens out there, I hope you truely like your name.

Kevin Tien from Howell, New Jersey seems to be a math prodigy.
Kevin Tien of Irvine, CA's University High excels in Biology.
Kevin Tien of Concord, Ontario, Canada is an expert on packaging window blinds!
Lam Nhat Kevin Tien is a popular Vietnamese singer.
Kevin Tien of Taiwan is a general manager of Vista Vision Co. Ltd.