Hi, my name is Carmen

One night at a bar...
Lady: Hi, my name is Carmen; cause I like cars and I like men
Guy: Hi, my name is Pepe

So my nickname is Oyen and my mommy told me she copied it from a cousin's friend who has the same real name as I did. Not very original, right? So I've been trying to figure out how to make myself feel more special (vain much!) by looking for a different story behind my name. Yes, I WILL make one up.

The obvious first place to look: Google

The first hit looked interesting, "The Town of Oyen". Not exactly what I had in mind when I thought about creating my own society - built on my own rules/laws and principles. And I have to admit, when my parents built a resort in Pangasinan 17 years ago, they decided well when they chose my sister's name, Charissa, over mine. The Town of Oyen doesn't really sound like a place people would want to go to... heck, I don't find the name appealing - and I'm the vain one here.

Mmmhmmm.
NO.

Moving on.

Second attempt for a cool meaning behind my name: Yahoo! Babel Fish. After browsing through several pages of Google results, I found out that "oyen" appears quite often with Spanish blogs/sites.


Does not make any sense but it's good enough for me! It just so happens that after generations of having Spanish names, my parents suddenly decided to give me an American name. I think they got confused with the whole Canonization of Lorenzo Ruiz on my birth year and forgot all about Spanish names when they had me.

Now I can just say,

"Oyen" is Spanish. We have this tradition of having Spanish names. My older sister and older brother both have Spanish names as well.

Yep, that would do.