In doing some research for my new obsession, I came across some pretty interesting things when talking with my father. First of all, the fourth symbol means nothing. Technically, it means "seal", as in this red thing I use to stamp my name on things is my seal. It's not required as part of the seal. It's just there to provide a fourth character for balance and to make it look pretty. More importantly, dad informed me that there is a cycle. My generation is currently in the water cycle. The Chinese character that detonates the generational name must include the water symbol. There are several options to choose from, each with a different meaning. Some of the meanings are usually associated with girls. Others with boys. And, to make things easier (or harder, depending on your point of view), the phonetic sound that forms a syllable usually has a wide variety of different characters to choose from. For instance, the sounds "Soo" (or, alternatively, "Sue") has (unlike English) only one written form in the Korean alphabet. However, that name (ie: that sound) has at least 30 different Chinese characters associated to it. Each one sounds the same, but the meanings are different. Of the 30, roughly 10 have the Tree symbol as part of the character. Of the 10, each has a different meaning. One also includes the Water symbol, and is usually associated with Water, so if you're looking for the Tree, you only really have 9 choices. So, you really have 9 choices, which will have to vetted for meaning to convey the proper image/hopes for the child, as well as to make sure the name is of proper gender (some meanings are traditionally associated with gender. For instance, in English, Mercedes is usually a girl's name, even though it happens to also mean expensive car. In fact, car names are usually associated with girls. Does this mean we would rather own luxury cars then have a girl?). However, "Soo/Sue" is not strictly decided. The Tree symbol is what is sought. So there might be an alternative phonetic that includes the Tree symbol. The rules on when you can use this exception from the common superfamilial convention are not clear. And you also try not to use characters used before. It's bad luck to use the same name as the ancestors. But more to the point, our family has a 5 generation cycle to the generational name. Earth gives forth Metal. Metal melts like Water. Water gives forth Tree. Tree produces Fire. Fire reduces all to ash which is Earth. Lather, rinse, repeat. :: Today was stop 2 on the Gene Tour of Doctors. Tonight's featured ride was the dentist chair, which I haven't seen for a long long time. Surprisingly, it went very well. No cavities. A little more blood and saliva then I would have preferred during my cleaning, but not nearly as much as I thought there was going to be. And it didn't hurt that I got to chat it up some with my cute (classic blond Italian-American, but cute nonetheless) hygenist, Lori.