What’s in a name?

My name is Theresa Grace Colbert O’Connor. Decolonized, it’s Treasa Gráinne Colbárd Ní Chonchúir. I go by Tess. My pronouns are she/her.

English & Irish

I explained my choice of Theresa elsewhere:

My family is really important to me. I wanted a name that reflected that[…]

Three of my four grandparents died when I was little but the fourth, my paternal grandmother, lived until I was twenty-five. She was a huge part of my life. Her name was Theresa (though we grandkids all called her Nina).

There are a bunch of common nicknames for Theresa. I like Tess a lot.

The first person recorded with the pan-European name Theresa (fr: Thérèse, es: Teresa, etc.) was the third-century noblewoman Therasia of Nola. The name is believed to be of Greek origin though it’s unclear precisely which Greek word the name is derived from. The most likely candidates are θέρος/θερίζω/Θήρα (en: summer/harvest/Santorini). [Wikipedia]

Treasa, while often used as an Irish-language equivalent to Theresa, is a native Irish name and not a derivative. It comes from the word treise which means strength, power, dominance; force, emphasis. [Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Ó Dónaill, 1977]

If you combine the meanings of Theresa and Treasa you may conclude I’m a strong woman of the summer, which is apt: I was born in August and have five Leo placements.

Grace (la: gratia) is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s my maternal grandmother’s name (and I don’t mind the nods to Adm. Hopper and Grace Plunkett either). Gráinne is the usual Irish substitute for Grace despite being etymologically unrelated to it. Gráinne is one of the most important characters in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology, and Gráinne Ní Mháille was a total badass. As for what the name means, it comes from the word grian (en: the Sun), which riffs nicely with Theresa’s possible meaning of “summer.” [Wikipedia]

Colbert (ga: Colbárd) was my paternal grandmother’s maiden name and, along with my surname, is a holdover from my deadname. The name itself appears in several European countries and is of ultimately uncertain origin and meaning; that part of my family came from Castlemartyr, Co. Cork.

The surname Ní Chonchúir (Ó Conchúir for men, hence O’Connor in English) is derived from the given name Conchúr/Conor. It means dog lover (which I am! Dogs are so good!) and was formed from the words cú & cobar. [Wikipedia] My O’Connor ancestors lived near Castleisland, Co. Kerry, though in recent years the family has spread to Killarney and Ballybunion, a beautiful stop along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Japanese

My name in Katakana is オコーナー·テリーサ，from the English. No one’s ever used ニーハンフール・ツラサ, from the Irish, but I don’t hate the idea. テス is fine among friends. I suppose you could use 康かん特蘇てす／康コウ特蘇とくソ, but that’d be kinda weird.

Chinese

Coming up with a Chinese name is quite complicated. You want something that’s

• no more than three characters,
• where the meanings of each character speak to you somehow, and ideally also relate to the meaning of the corresponding part of your name,
• where each one has a reading similar to how you pronounce that part of your name, if possible,
• and (as a bonus) with a surname ideally drawn from the Hundred Family Surnames.

And you have to do all that while contending with the many layers of meaning that Han characters carry, the numerology of stroke counts, etc., etc. My friend Jay Henry Kao and I fiddled with it for ages before settling on Kāng Tèsū/Kāng Tè Sū—康特蘇 in traditional characters and 康特苏 in simplified:

• 康（Kāng） is one of the Nine Sogdian Surnames in the Hundred Family Surnames. It has a number of meanings I like (peaceful and happy; tranquil; healthy; well; strong; prosperous; plentiful; abundant, etc.). It sounds like the stressed syllable in O’Connor, and some of its meanings fit well enough.

• 特（Tè） means special; unique; distinguished. It’s a very common character to use in names of non-Chinese people when you need/want a “teh” sound. It’ll do.

• 蘇（Sū） is the Chinese name for shiso (Perilla frutescens) and also means to revive; to resuscitate; to regain consciousness. [Wiktionary] Shiso might give you the impression that I’m a bit spicy, and the other meaning adds an oblique nod to my trans status. It’s an alternate form of 甦, which is somewhat more common in Chinese. (I went with 蘇 instead of 甦 because 蘇 is in the set of jinmeiyō kanji, which can be used in names in Japan, whereas 甦 is hyōgaiji, a character very rarely used in Japanese that isn’t used in names there. I tried pretty hard to come up with a Chinese name that could work in Japanese, with mixed results.)

toki pona

In toki pona, I go by jan Tasa, from the Irish. I use the headnoun jan, or sometimes tonsi. (I like the sing-song sound of tonsi Tasa, and I’m queer AF.)