This story is actually my father’s. While he and my mother were visiting China (my mother is Chinese, my father is not) some years before I was born he had a Chinese chop—that is, a seal with which to stamp things—made with his (now our) surname. Our surname is Lapiroff, but when they transliterated into Chinese it read as “Lapilofu.” I think it’s a really cute sounding name, so since hearing the story, I use it pretty much everywhere online.