Jennie Liu: Hello. My name is Jennie Liu. Liu is spelled L-I-U, but a close enough pronunciation might rhyme with Lou, as in L-O-U. Liu is a pretty common last name in China, but there is an interesting story attached to my first name. My mom was pregnant with me when my family immigrated to the States. I was the first child in my family to be born in a hospital because my three older sisters had been delivered at home by my father.

In traditional Chinese culture, children were not given names during the first month as it was feared that demons would come to steal their spirits. So, my parents had taken their time with naming my sisters. They were caught off guard when they were told they needed to name me before they left the hospital. My mom scrambled to come up with something and decided to name me after her new favorite television show, I Dream of Jeannie. Unfortunately, she misspelled the name, leaving out the A.

My family still calls me Jeannie, but when I started school, it was too much for me to explain why my written name was different than my spoken name. So, that's when I just started going by Jennie.