1. IB English A2 SL Year 2
September 21, 11
Tomohiro Urakami
Comparative Commentary
In the poem, “How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” by Nellie Wong and vignette
called “My Name” from a novel, The House of Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, they
illustrate similar setting that both main characters, Nellie and Esperanza are bicultural
who live in America, experiencing the cultural difference. However, the themes
portrayed are different that Nellie Wong indicates the significance of the meaning of the
name and having one more than one could cause confusion in identity and Cisneros
illustrates that having strong connection between person and name brings identity and
confidence.
“How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” is an autobiographical poem about a girl,
Nellie who is ethnically Chinese and bicultural of American and Chinese. It seems that
her parents migrated from China into America and Nellie is raised there for whole life.
Nellie chronologically talks about her original name, Nellie and two names that she
received during her childhood and how she received them, Nah Lei and Lay Oi.
“Nellie” (l.3) is the American name that was given by her parents because she
was born in America. Her parents also make Nellie to go to Chinese school every
Saturday in order to give her opportunity to learn Chinese culture and find her Chinese
identity. At her Chinese school, Nellie receives Chinese name, “Nah Lei” (l.7), which
means “Where or Which Place” (l.8) from her teacher because there is “No such name
in Chinese for a name like Nellie” (l.6). She excitedly “ran home” (l.14) to tell her

2. IB English A2 SL Year 2
September 21, 11
Tomohiro Urakami
parents that she got a new name. However, her parents disapprove of this name due to
its negative meaning, so they give Nellie a new Chinese name, “Lai Oy” (l.20), meaning
beautiful love.
Since Nellie is still young and naive, she simply expresses happiness for having
new names. When Nellie went back to her school, she “announ[ced] to [her] teacher and
friends that [her] name was no longer Nah Lei […] but Lai Oy,” (l.22-25), which shows
her excitement and happiness to have new name that has positive meaning. However, as
she grows, she faces conflict that she finds it difficult to establish her identity between
difference cultural identities: American and Chinese. At home and her American school,
she is Nellie who lives in American culture. However, at her Chinese school, she is Lay
Oi, who lives in Chinese culture. The constant change in the culture and her name
unable her to establish her identity and in this situation, she loses herself although she
“never knew [she] would ever get lost,” (l.37).
The theme depicted in the poem is that in Asian culture, people emphasize the
significance of the meaning of the name and having positive meaning makes a person
better. This is illustrated by Nellie’s parents’ attitude toward the negative connotation of
Nah Lei, which was given by her Chinese teacher. Nellie “did not look [her] parents in
the eye,” (l.16) because her parents were upset with the meaning of Nah Lei, where or
which place. Therefore, they immediately gave Nellie Chinese name with positive
meaning, Lay Oi, beautiful love, so that their daughter would not be fooled in the future
because of her name. Furthermore, the last two lines of the poem indicate another theme

3. IB English A2 SL Year 2
September 21, 11
Tomohiro Urakami
that having more than one name could cause in the confusion in identity. Being Nellie at
her school and home, and Being Lai Oy at her Chinese school, the sustained change in
her name and culture brought her confusion as she grew up and at the end it results in
difficulty in establishing identity.
Similar to Nellie, a female narrator of vignette, “My Name”, Esperanza is
ethnically Mexican who is also bicultural of American and Mexican. She seems to be a
migrant from Mexico into America. However, unlike Nellie, Esperanza has only one
name, which came from her great grandmother and thus, she is “always Esperanza”.
Esperanza mainly starts this vignette by talking about the meaning of her name in
English and Spanish then talks about the connection between her great grandmother
who was born in the Chinese year of the horse and had the same name as Esperanza.
As Nellie, Esperanza expresses meaning of her name. In English, Esperanza
means, “hope”, but in Spanish it means too many letters, sadness and waiting. Her name
comes from her great grandmother who was an independent woman and “so wild” until
great grandmother’s husband married her. Esperanza illustrates how her great
grandmother spent sad life after marrying, “[looking] out the window her whole life, the
way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow.” In contrast to Nellie, after talking
about her name, Esperanza declares that she wants to have a new name that represents
herself and gives an example of the name she would like to have, “Zeze the X”.

4. IB English A2 SL Year 2
September 21, 11
Tomohiro Urakami
In contrast to Nellie, Esperanza mostly portrays negative sentiment about her
name throughout the vignette. Esperanza thinks her name is a “muddy color” because it
has many negative connotations in Spanish and it sounds “funny as if the syllables were
made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth” when pronounced in English although
it sounds “softer something, like silver” in Spanish. Furthermore, Esperanza’s great
grandmother’s life during her marriage is another reason Esperanza does not like her
name that although she is proud to have her great grandmother’s name, she does not
want to follow the same path as her great grandmother did, the life without freedom or
independence. Thus, her confusion is brought by her failure to define herself in her
name, which only expresses her family heritage, so she tries to solve this by finding
herself a new name such as “Zeze the X”. This is different from the conflict that is
introduced by Nellie because the source of conflict is different that Nellie’s comes from
her two names and Esperanza’s comes from her only name, Esperanza.
Unlike Nellie Wong’s poem, Cisneros expresses the theme that strong
connection between name and the person establishes identity and confidence. The desire
of Esperanza to have a name she likes such as, “Zeze the X” shows that Esperanza
thinks the name can authorize and fascinate people. This is shown in inconsistency of
her tone. She sounds matured most of the time during this vignette, but she sounds
immature when she talks about her desire to have “name more like [her]”, such as
“Something like, Zeze the X will do”. Esperanza tells readers that having positive
sentiment toward name leads to strong identity with confidence. If people dislike their

5. IB English A2 SL Year 2
September 21, 11
Tomohiro Urakami
name or feels that the name does not represent them, they feel confusion and thus
become unable to find identity and confidence.
In both pieces, “How a Girl Got Her Chinese Name” by Nellie Wong and in a
vignette, “My Name” in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, main
bicultural characters, Nellie and Esperanza both struggle with establishing their own
identity because of two different cultures and mention the significance of the name.
However, the themes illustrated as a result of the conflicts are different. Nellie expresses
that the meaning of name has significance in person in Asian culture and more than two
names could cause confusion. On the other hand, Esperanza explores the theme that
strong connection between person and name and positive sentiment toward their name
brings identity and confidence.