Laura Gao: My Chinese given-name is Gao Yu Yang, and my English name is Laura. My Chinese name is broken up into three characters; Gao meaning tall and grand, Yu, which means the cosmos and stars, and Yang, which means the oceans. So my parents like to brag that they gave me this name since I am their entire world.

The origins of my English name is much less poetic. I was tired of all my teachers and classmates butchering my Chinese name at school so one day I marched right home and demanded my mom give me a English one. And at the time, Laura Bush was the First Lady and she was also from Texas so my mom suggested that, and little six-year-old me, not knowing who and what a First Lady was, but super stoked to have a name that rolls off the tongue like honey, just snatched it right up and ran with it.