Why your surname is Chan, Miffa?

A lot of people asked me why my surname is Chan. There’s no mystery about this, my surname is Chan, as others’ are Fernández, Smith, Schumaker, Frundsen, etc.

In fact my real surname is Ka Shing but I decided to use a more common Chinese surname and my choice was Chan.

From wikipedia:

Chén (Simplified Chinese: 陈, Traditional Chinese: 陳) is one of the most common Chinese family names. It ranks at the 5th most popular surname in Mainland China. Chen is also the most common family name in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. It is usually romanised as Chan in Cantonese, and sometimes as Chun. In Fukien (Hokkien, Taiwanese, Southern Min) as well as Teochew (Chiuchau), the name is pronounced Tan. In Hakka, the name in pronounced Chin. Some other Romanisations include Zen and Ding.

Being me a bunny from the southern territories (Hong Kong) it was the perfect choice, wasn’t it?

Some people from Japan told me that “Chan” is a common suffix, and while in Australia girls that I met in malls, even our Dive master (from Japan) called me Miffa Chan (but they have no idea about my surname)

A good bunny friend from Tokyo sent me this wikipedia entry:

Chan (ちゃん, Chan?) is the hypocoristic suffix, used to refer to children, animals, and people whom one has known since they were children. To use chan for adults whom one has not known since their childhood requires considerable intimacy, less for women than for men. Furthermore, attaching chan to a modified stem is more intimate than attaching it to the full form of the basic name. Chan may also used for celebrities as a title of affection. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger gained the nickname Shuwa chan in Japanese. Although traditionally honorifics are not applied to oneself, some young women
occasionally develop the habit of referring to themselves in the third person using chan. For example, a young woman named Maki might call herself Maki-chan rather than using a first person pronoun. Chan is also used for pets’ names and when referring to animals, such as usagi-chan (or, more frequently, usa-chan: rabbit+chan) (e.g. Tama-chan, the flying turtle in Love Hina), or when speaking to small children.

But this is just a “funny” coincidence. I really hope that all your doubts are solved.