What’s in a Name?

I was born “Simon Hsiao Tam” on March 31, 1981…at least according to my parents. Growing up, I had a couple of different middle names. My paper trail through the public school system will sometimes list it as “Hong,” like my father’s, and sometimes “Hsiao,” from my mother’s side of the family. I didn’t really know which to choose, I just knew that no matter what, it began with an “H,” so that my initials of “SHT” would either be a badass proclamation or a target for ridicule.

But this wasn’t...