Thi Thuy

Thi Thuy comes from Vietnamese, and its origin sits outside the European name stock most Polish readers know. The second part, Thúy, goes back to a Sino-Vietnamese word for the kingfisher. That small river bird wears feathers in a shade between blue and green. From the plumage the word reached toward jade, the green stone, so Thúy holds jade, kingfisher, and bluish-green together.

The color came first.

The first part, Thi, is among the most common middle names given to Vietnamese girls. It is written with a character that marks the feminine line, and it sits before the given name rather than replacing it. On a Polish class register the name lands between local forms, read once and then learned by the teacher.

For anyone reading it here, Thúy still points back to the kingfisher and its jade-green feathers.