Before I named myself Charlin back in 2008, I made sure to google the name first and no one was using this name. It is supposed to be unique as there is a reason how my middle is spelt. Char - Char Si Lang (吵死人 in hokkien) and Lin comes from my chinese name. I wrote a blogpost for this in 2008. The meaning of my name - Charlin aligned with my formal name - Shirley. It was elegant and creative.
I cleaned up my blog shortly after I went to work in SI company, my first job after graduating in Polytechnic in 2017. Hence the first blog post in this blog became 2012, the same year I officially started - SHIRLEY CHARLIN.
I set my blog and a few social media profiles to private for six years due to clauses in my permanent employment contract regarding our personal social media accounts. We need to show the HR if we have public social media account and required to close it if higher management did not approve it. There were sharing from former employees that uncivilized/ no-progression people working in the company have too little work during official working hours so they will go out to invade your privacy. They are usually the ones who had been in the company longer than their reporting supervisor. The reporting supervisor will listen to whatever make-up stories of you from anything does not matter if it is true or they had witness it. The fear of invasion of privacy from uncivilized individuals in the workplace who had too much time on their hands fueled my decision.
Fast forward 15 years, I have came to realise that my middle name is no longer unique, even in Singapore. The first indication of this shift came when I stumbled upon a LinkedIn profile belonging to another individual with the same spelling of Charlin, coincidentally with the surname Lee—a high-ranking employee at A* Star. Her profile is impressive. It was a surreal moment, imagining a scenario where our paths might cross professionally. If I became her colleague or research student? Will Charlin One be me or her?
So funny.
After seeing my name on LinkedIn profile, I went to search social media account handle with just "Charlin" as the keyword. Oh my, there are three Charlins now. If there are more after this post, it only means I still have readers and my blogposts are still interesting.
I really love my middle name, and so I decided to register it in legal papers. However, even this endeavor proved to be challenging, as I discovered that the name Charlin had already been claimed by a company named Charlin Holdings, which emerged during the Covid pandemic. Thanks for helping me to save thousands of dollars. Still, I really want my name back.
I thought my middle name Charlin will be unique forever, but nope. 😐
Shirley Charlin 李