What’s in a name?
My name seal, 施臻玢印, Shī zhēn bīn Yìn ‘Steffan seal’, artfully and beautifully crafted by Angela Reich at Stone And Water Studio, Surrey.
My Name
My teacher had a friend translate my name for me…
Steffan Stringer
史太玢.施臻葛
Chinese name:
施臻玢
施 - It generally means to implement, process, give, etc. It also means grace and kindness. When used as a name, it means a person with a pure heart, a heart for charity, and a loving heart.
臻 - The original meaning of "Zhen" is to achieve or perfect. When used as a name, it means perfection.
玢 - The word "玢" used in names implies beautiful jade, beauty, and transparency, and has auspicious meaning and connotation.
Altogether it comes out as ‘Shī zhēn bīn’
I’ve never been one for horoscopes, star signs and the like, but I do sometimes describe myself as a half-German, left-handed, Virgo. It’s a handy ice-breaking and self-deprecating phase that I use to explain some awkwardness. I usually say this when I am being very fussy and too much of a perfectionist.
Which coincidentally lines up with “Zhen” - spooky!
As for the 施 character, I have had a number of operational roles in my career, where it’s been my job to ‘get shit done’. Sometimes I have been true to this pithy epithet, mostly at work. Other times, less so, mostly at home.
I guess that the image of the ‘doer’ is flattering, and how we’d all like to be perceived.
Am I pure at heart?
I am definitely a big softy in my old age.
As for the 玢 character - have you seen my LinkedIn mugshot (same picture on my About page)? I am note sure we can really use me as a beauty benchmark in the same way we might Helen of Troy or, perhaps Brad Pitt.
Transparency maybe, if you count being a little bit direct or actually rather blunt.
Chinese Names
Quotes below are extracted, abridged and edited from correspondence with Angela Reich at Stone And Water Studio.
A Chinese name is usually three characters - one family name (surname) & two given name (first name) eg Mao Zedong.
So in your Chinese name 施 Shī acts as the family name/surname and 臻玢 gébīn acts like a given name.
A name seal is usually all three characters.
Seal Designs
The characters on seals are written in the ancient seal script, so do not look like modern Chinese.
Seals are carved in relief or intaglio:
Relief, yang style, red characters on white ground.
Intaglio, yin style, white characters on red ground.
Name seals are usually relief, but this is not an absolute rule.
And…
Your name seal is therefore three characters 施臻玢.
Designing means looking up the ancient characters then making a pleasing composition.
To aid composition, additional characters can be included: seal 印 yin or 's seal 之 印 zhi yin.
Lastly…
The characters are in seal script, the ancient form of the characters.
They are in traditional Chinese order ie columns from right to left.
‘Lion Dog’ seal (2.5 cm square) in presentation box with a small pot of seal paste coloured with Cinnabar (don’t eat it!)
