My "Uber Name"
“Hi! Cindy?” asked the Uber driver as he pulled up in front of College Hall.
I was shivering in my too-thin jacket after standing in the cold for five minutes, nervous about taking my first Uber ride in an unfamiliar city. But that was not why I had to do a double take before giving the driver a quick nod and chirping “Yes, that’s me!” I had to do a double take because I was not, in fact, Cindy. It sounded similar to my given name – Xinyi, and that was how I ended up choosing it for my “Uber name” when I moved to London for university.
The driver was friendly enough, and I was back at my own dorm room, Unite St Pancras Way, in under fifteen minutes. I quickly sent a message to my friends back at College Hall to let them know that I had gotten home safely. But the dorm room wasn’t home and Cindy wasn’t my name.
Prior to choosing an “Uber name”, I never thought too much about my given name. I just knew that it was common in Singapore where I grew up, and teachers often resorted to calling all the “Xinyis” in their classes by our full names to differentiate one from another. Perhaps it was that nonchalance (which I now regret) which led me to end up typing “Cindy” instead of my given name when I first downloaded the Uber app.
At that moment, there was a part of me which resented my name and wished that I had an “English” name. It would make things a lot easier. Nobody would mix up my first and last names. And nobody would be able to realise how foreign I was, or at least, not immediately.
In a phone call with my mother days after that first Uber ride, I asked her about how she decided on my name. I always vaguely knew that it had something to do with daybreak but given how common my name was, I never bothered to find out much more. During that phone call, I learnt that the 昕 (xīn) in my name meant daybreak and symbolised hope for a fresh start. The 宜 (yí) in my name expressed my mother’s wish for me to grow up to be a gentle, kind-hearted woman.
As I write this thirty years from the time when my mother gave me my name, I learn that it is also said that my “Uber name”, Cindy, has its origins in the Latin word “lux”, meaning light. It is ironic how both names are similar in their references to light given how differently they came to be – one expressed a young mother’s hopes and dreams for her child, while another was selected out of convenience simply because it was easier to pronounce.
After three years in London and another two in Tokyo, I moved back home to Singapore for good.
I never thought I’d ever tell the story of my “Uber name” but I got reminded of that fateful first Uber ride when a new colleague joined the office a few months ago.
“Hi, my name is Judith!” said the newcomer who introduced herself with a little wave of her hand.
“Hi, I’m Xinyi,” I responded.
“Cindy?” she asked.
“No, it’s Xinyi,” I clarified with a smile.
Koay Xinyi is a writer and translator from Singapore. She is currently working on a collection of essays that reflect upon her journey to discover what truly matters in life. Her ideal afternoon is one spent in a library, a good book in hand.