Ying Chang Compestine: Hello. My name is Ying Chang Compestine. You don't have to pronounce the Y in my name Ying. When my mother was pregnant with me, she had a bet with my father that I would be a boy. My father won, so he named me Ying. The Chinese character has two meanings, "victory" and "ocean." My father chose this name because he won, and because he had grown up near the South China Sea.

Chang is easy to pronounce. Then I got married. Now I have to spell this long Italian name, Compestine, all the time.