Life Update: A Name, A Shift, A Becoming

Shared with permission.

In Chinese culture, names are deeply meaningful. 

They speak of your ancestry and carry aspirations for your character and future. It’s common for families to consult fortune tellers and feng shui masters to choose auspicious names based on birthdate and times, the zodiac year, and a balance of the natural elements: earth, water, fire, wood and metal. 

Each of my children has a Chinese name carefully chosen by a feng shui master in Hong Kong. 

A couple of years ago, I noticed that my eldest had started signing off her school work using Chan-Sharpe as her last name. She’d taken my Chinese maiden name and fused it with our family surname. No discussion. Just a quiet confident declaration of identity: half Kiwi, half Chinese, fully herself.

It stopped me in my tracks.

There was something so powerful - so beautifully brave - in that small act. A child naming herself, holding and celebrating both sides of who she is. It made me reflect deeply about my own name, the names I’ve carried, the ones I’d set aside, and the ones I’m reclaiming. 

So, here I am - lending from her courage - reintroducing myself to the world as Nessie Chan-Sharpe.

This isn’t just a rebrand. It’s a return. A homecoming. A way of weaving my heritage more authentically and wholly into the work I do through Coprosma Books. Writing has always been my way of making sense of the world, of creating space for my children and others like them to see themselves reflected with joy and complexity.

The past year has also brought major personal changes. I’ve stepped into life as a solo mother of three. Not a path I ever imagined life would take, but a journey I walk now, with trembling hands, a lot of snacks, and quiet tentative hope for my children and I.

This chapter will be one of reclaiming, rebuilding, and returning. Of creating our peace. Our joy. Our shelter.

And through it all - stories continue to bloom. In life and on paper. Messy, magical, bilingual, bicultural stories. Books are still being written, and projects are inching forward through the turmoil and healing. I hope to be able to share more soon.

Thank you for walking alongside me, for supporting my mahi and for believing in the power of names, stories, and becoming.

With aroha,

Nessie Chan-Sharpe