No. 209 - Yo-Yo

I caught a program on the radio this morning that was discussing genealogy. You probably know someone who compiled a family tree that goes back several generations, but how about tracing your ancestors back 800 years?

The program focused on the genealogy of Yo-Yo Ma, the world-famous Chinese-American cellist.

Apparently, Yo-Yo's paternal ancestry can be traced back more than twenty-five generations to the year 1217. This genealogy was compiled in the 18th century by an ancestor who also mandated the generational names for all of his descendants, including "Yo" for the generation born in the middle of the 20th century, and for 30 generations after that. Yo-Yo's sister's name is Yo Chang.

I also learned that the word "Yo" in Chinese means "friendly" and the word "Ma" means "horse," which means Yo-Yo Ma means friendly-friendly horse.