The name of this blog, Just Another Ken, was from an incident when we created a random group chat to share Spotify accounts. All were Vietnamese and all three boys in that group, me included, found out we all used Ken for our English names. Despite knowing each other for 5, 6 years at that point, our circle outside of the Vietnamese community in Singapore never overlapped much, so we only used our Vietnamese names. Obviously, someone joked that we needed Barbies.
I don’t know how the other two picked Ken for their English names. For me, it was another occasion of both randomness and overthinking.
My full name is Nguyen Minh Tuan. New non-Vietnamese acquaintances had a tendency to call me by my middle name because it was the easiest word to pronounce. At one point, I was tired of teaching people to say my name by saying “two” and “an” really really quickly.
I thought of multiple names. From characters in video games to books to TV shows. I might have picked Antonio had it not been to exotic to me. I would have picked Jonathan had it not been my boyfriend’s name at that time.
Then I picked Ken. And it was so logical, so obvious, so natural. There should be no better one.
First, Ken is the short form of Kenneth. Kenneth derived from the Gaelic name, meaning “handsome” or “fire-born.” Guess what? My first name, “Tuấn,” means “handsome.” And the Chinese word for my middle name, “Minh,” includes the character for “fire.”
Second, the word “ken” itself means range of perception, which is kind of related to the second meaning of my middle name, i.e. minh = smart.
Third, I was an alcoholic. Ken is a decently famous brand of lager.
Forth, it sounds like “can.” “Ken can” has some nice rhythm.
Fifth, it is simple, hard to mispronounce, and not memorable. The latter being the most important element.
By this point I have almost ran out of excuses, so I would just end with sixth, it is common. Evidently so common that I could be just another Ken.
