The parents of a girl in my class at the English stream convent school (St Joseph's Convent) adopted the Chinese generation name practice in their choosing of Western (Christian) names for their four daughters.
The couple had Christian names themselves, one with A (Andrew or something) and one with B (Brenda or something), so they decided to give their girls a generation name of Agnes (A after the first letter in the father's name), with their personal names starting with B (after the first letter in the mother's name).
I can't remember what the personal names were, so I'll make them up just for illustrating my point.
The oldest was Agnes Beatrice Toh (surname)
The second was Agnes Belinda Toh (surname)
The third was Agnes Barbara Toh (surname)
The fourth was Agnes Bonnie Toh (surname)
Unfortunately, all four girls were referred to by their first personal name, so they were all Agnes Toh. Whenever I rang the girl in my class and asked for Agnes Toh, I'd get this in return, "Which one?"
After a number of times, I learned to ask for Agnes Toh of Primary 6.
What a crazy system.
(Singapore, 1960s)
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