” How I Got My Name”

My name is Wanda. I once looked up my name on Google and it said it was a name of German descent. However the real origins of how I was named gave an entirely new meaning to what the name, “Wanda,” meant to my Thai culture, family, and upbringing in America.
Before I was born here in California, my father told me he had a dream that a monk was walking down the road and brought out of his traveling bag a black Buddha statue. The monk said it would bring him great fortune and bargained with him to keep it, and so he did. However, when he woke up, he found my mother moaning in pain. She was having a stomach ache so my father began massaging her stomach. As he drew his fingers into her bloated abdomen, he shouted, “Huh, aria you nai toung!” which meant “There’s something in your stomach!” My mother cried out “It’s gas!” However my father urgently insisted that she visit the hospital for a doctor’s diagnosis. The next day, my mother went to the hospital with her friend Jai Jeed from work. She helped translate the English words of the doctor to my mother. “You are six month’s pregnant.” This was news most parents would feel blessed with fortune to hear, however this was not the case for my parents who were illegal immigrants living in the United States as unprotected people with no rights.
My father was devastated, realizing that after two months, my mother would not be able to work. He would then have to be the backbone, supporting a new baby and two of their children back in Thailand. My mother was afraid for her life. She was scared that once she delivered her baby, the government would find out she was an illegal immigrant and send her and my father back to Thailand. They weren’t able to save enough money to pay for the debt they borrowed from friends and family to come to America. Furthermore, my mother was disappointed, not understanding how it would be possible that she was pregnant. At the time, my mother was administered birth control pills by Siam Poly clinic. They told her it must have been a mistake and apologized, offering to pay for an abortion. Mai Kun, my grandmother, plead with my mother not to have an abortion. She begged “I want to see my grandchild, please don’t!” My mother’s friend Jai Jeed told my mother “ Don’t worry, I’ll help you get through this.” She knew how to speak English well and assisted with taking my mother to the hospital for her monthly check-up.
I was growing bigger in my mother’s stomach everyday. Despite the pregnancy, my mother would continue to search for work cutting vegetables and cooking at different restaurants within Thai Town. But once her employers knew that she was pregnant, they fired her to avoid legal trouble with the health inspectors and the liability for endangering her health. My mother asked her friends about job opportunities and they suggested garment work in Eagle Rock. Her friends told her it was easy work, cutting threads for 10 cents per clothing dress. She would take the Metrolink bus line 10 to the garment shop to make 10 to 12 dollars a day. Any amount of income supporting the family was better than none. The pregnancy was making it hard for her to work. The amount of blood in her body had increased dramatically because of the pregnancy, which lead to a lot of extra fluid getting processed through her kidneys. Every other minute she recalled, “I would have to get up and go to the bathroom every 10 minutes. I would barely get any work done.“ Many of her co-workers empathized with her pregnancy and helped with the garment work.
Many people would asked my parents, “What are you going to name your child?” My parents were occupied with work and so they did not even think of giving me a name. In Thai culture, the essence of one’s identity lives within your name . People would go to great measures to have their names granted by the king or well-known monks to bless them with a wonderful life. My great grandmother was a fortune teller in the Thai province and she granted my older brother and sister their names. She granted the names to her grandchildren that she would never see but she told my mother to name my older brother “Narong,” a name which means a person of great success and wealth. My older sister was named “Wongtong,” meaning the circle of gold. However, my great grandmother could not foresee my mother’s future of having another daughter in America.
My parents conversed with the fifteen of their friends living in a one-unit apartment. My mom said, “We should name her Dollar, since we came all the way from Thailand to make money!” One of my dad’s friend laughed. “No, no… your daughter will be teased and always asked, how much? Don’t name her Dollar.” My mother exclaimed,“We should name her after the street we live on, maybe Hobart or Melrose?” Everyone laughed and kept deliberating on a name that would suit the new baby soon to be coming into the world.
On November 19th my mother began feeling overwhelming contractions in her uterus. She called my father on the house phone. Look ja cood law! “The baby is coming!” My father did not have a car, and asked his boss Mr. Delok to drive my mother to the hospital. Once they arrived at the hospital, his boss helped translate for my parents. My mother’s friend Jai Jeed also came to help with the paper work. She faked the address information and left my mother’s name registered as the patient. My mother brought her sarong for the birth process but the doctor told her to take it off. She was so surprised by the great care she was receiving from the hospital. She was expecting the worst, because in Thailand when she gave birth to my brother and sisters, it was in the rural hospital. My mother said “When I was already in labor with your brother, they made me walk all the way from the waiting room to the doctor’s operating room.” She was greatly taken care of by a nurse named Linda. Linda helped my mother throughout the whole 6 hours of waiting for the water to break. My mother was administered the epidural which numbed the pain but did not slow down her quickening heartbeat, which rapidly fluttered as a butterfly’s wings. Finally at midnight, November 20th, I arrived into the world.
My mother was asked shortly afterwards, “What would you like to name your daughter?” My mother didn’t have a name planned and promptly replied “I don’t know!” The nurse thought for a moment and said “Well lets name her Linda after me.” My mother said “Oh, please include apart of my name. My name is Wandee. “ The nurse responded “Okay, lets put the two names together… Wandee and Linda together… we get Wanda!” My mother cradled me in her arms and this is the story of how I got my name.

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