Thanhhà Lại: Hi. My name is Thanhhà Lại. Thanh with a clear bell sound. Ang, ang, ang. Now put Th in front of it. Th-ang. Hà has an accent that directs the tone downward. So not ha as in ha, ha, ha, but Hà. Thanh means "gentle" and Hà means "river." I was born in Vietnam, and last names go first there. So I was called Lại T. Thanh Hà. The T is added to every female name. Everyone there just called me Hà, but when I moved to Alabama, fourth graders kept calling my Ha, ha, ha. So I thought I would punish them and make them say my middle and first names together. Thanhhà. To make it more complicated, I spelled the names as one. So now two Hs run together, and in all I have hoarded three Hs in my new first name. Well, I ended up just punishing my name because now I spend my days saying Thanhhà. Not Tanghi. Not Thanna. It's Thanhhà.