In our quest to find the meaning of Chia-Wen…

From Heartsent (our adoption agency)

I heard back from the translator that Chia-Wen translates to “beautiful disposition”.

From a friend who is travelling to Taiwan soon

“Chia-Wen” is pronounced “jia wen” – two syllables, not three. I noticed that St Lucy spells their babies’ names using the Wade-Giles method of romanization, but the modern way is to use the Hanyu Pinyin method. In Pinyin, “Chia-Wen” would be “Jia-Wen” which is closer to the actual pronunciation.

At St. Lucy, they probably call Ava “Wen-Wen” or “Xiao-Wen” or “A-Wen”. “Xiao” means “little”. “A” doesn’t mean anything but it’s a term of endearment. Chinese/Taiwanese people, when talking to their children, usually double the second character of the name or replace the first character with “xiao” or “ah”. I guess it just depends on what sounds better with the name.