Hello everyone!

Today’s post will be a stretch from what I usually post. Have you ever wondered where your name came from?  That’s me. I’ll talk about what my name means and where my name comes from.

For those who don’t know me, my Chinese name is 柯柏州 and my English name is Jasper Ko.

Chinese

So where does my Chinese come from?

To start things off, let’s talk about my surname: 柯. 柯 is pronounced as Ke. This surname is not a common surname in Taiwan, and have several possible origins of my surname, but there are three that stand out:

1. Descendants of Duke Ke Lu, who was the ruler of Lu during the Zhou Dynasty
2. Descendants of a tribe in Northern Wei Dynasty
3. Descendants of the Qiang or Xianbei tribe

My first name is 柏州 and consists of two words. The first word 柏 originally came from the Xia sovereign where there were a lot of pine trees. The word 柏 represents pines or cypresses, in regions that had a lot of those trees.

The second letter in my name is 州 and was a word that stood for political divisions or provinces in China. This word had existed for over 2000 years until 1912 when the Republic of China was formed.

Overall, since my ancestors are from China, my name is expected to all originate from there. However, even though all the characters are from China, it all came from different dynasties and regions.

via GIPHY

English

As for my English name, Jasper, there are also multiple origins of the name:

1. An origin is from the Persian Empire during the 6th century to the 20th century. The name Jasper is a boy’s name that stood for “bringer of treasure” or “treasure”.
2. Caspar, an English name derived from the Persian word Gaspar.
3. From the Flanders, modern time the Netherlands, who was an important trading partner and political ally of Britain during the Middle Ages. The time period is around the 14th century

 

As for what my name means, the modern meaning of Jasper is a reddish-brownish quart.

Weird isn’t it? How did they go from a name to a stone?

Now that I shared my name’s origin, it’s your turn to share yours! If you’re interested, tell me the origin of your name down in the comment section!

Sources:

“Jasper.” Jasper – Baby Boy Name Meaning and Origin | Oh Baby! Names, www.ohbabynames.com/meaning/name/jasper/1523#.W8UqfFOFO2w.

“Jasper.” The Bump, www.thebump.com/b/jasper-baby-name.

ZDIC.NET. 州的解释|州的意思|汉典”州”字的基本解释, www.zdic.net/z/19/js/5DDE.htm.