Usually, when I hear about families naming their kids after characters from video games, anime, YA fiction novels, or popular TV shows, a shiver crawls down my spine. One TikToker, however, has really cool parents. Her family named her and her siblings after Tekken characters.
Generally speaking, I don’t think you should name your son “Albus” just because you love Dumbledore, or “Daenerys” because you were obsessed with Game of Thrones in the 2010s. Nonetheless, fandom parents will do what fandom parents do, and I have no control over the ways they wish to ruin their children’s lives.
And this Tekken family is the first time in my life when I actually think naming your kids after video game characters is a fantastic move.
The Tekken TikTok family, explained
TikTok content creator @ninaeyu’s dad was a huge Tekken fan, a player well versed in the game who regularly competed in tournaments. Nina grew up watching her gamer dad play, and she also enjoyed playing Tekken herself, citing it as one of her favorites. But Tekken was part of Nina’s life from the beginning. For you see, when Nina was born, she was named after none other than player character Nina Williams.
“I am my parents’ first child, so they gave me the name Nina, and I am, in fact, named after Nina Williams,” Nina explained, smiling. “Naturally, this led to a pattern. Once my little brother was born, he was a year younger than me. So my oldest younger brother’s Korean name is Jin, but he was named after Jin Kazama. Of course, for Jin Kazama, it is a Japanese name, but it also happens to be a Korean name.”
Nina’s baby brother is also named Hwoarang. But this time around, he was named after a Tekken character on his whole entire family’s insistence. The pattern was already established with Jin and Nina, so why stop there? Nina explained that her family came up with the name “Anna” if Hwoarang ended up being a girl and, well, “Hwoarang” if he ended up being a boy, according to a tweet.
“My whole family, we were like, ‘we have to continue the tradition,'” Nina explained. She also said she “can’t wait for Tekken 8 to come out.”
“I need to play it,” she excitedly told TikTok, clearly taking after her father.
Nina’s original TikTok has over 141,000 likes, and a viral tweet showing off her video has well over 5,000 retweets. “The parents have taste if I may say so,” one Tekken fan added, while another aptly declared: “Nina gang rise up.”
Indeed. Nina, Jin, and Hwoarang, you three have the coolest family in the world. Here’s hoping you continue the tradition with your own kids.
(feature image: Bandai Namco)
Published: Jan 25, 2024 03:08 pm