“I have and have had many names. Little Dog was what Lan called me. What made a Woman who named herself and her daughter after flowers call her grandson a dog? A woman who watches for her own, that’s who. As you know, in the village where Lan grew up, a child, often the smallest or weakest of the flock, as I was, is named after the most despicable things: demon, ghost child, pig snout, monkey-born, buffalo head, bastard – little dog being the more tender one. Because evil spirits, roaming in the land for healthy, beautiful children, would hear the name of something hideous and ghastly being called in for supper and pass over the house, sparing the child. To love something, then, is to name it after something so worthless it might be left untouched–  and alive. A name, thin as air, can also be a shield. A Little Dog shield.”

- Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous