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Meaning & History
From the characters 缇 (tí, meaning “orange red”) and 萦 (yíng, meaning “to entangle” or “to wrap around”). This name was borne by Chunyu Tiying (淳于缇萦), a maiden recorded in the history of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC–9 CE). According to the Records of the Grand Historian (史记) by Sima Qian, her father was a doctor who had been accused by multiple nobles for refusing to serve them, and was sent to the capital city Chang’an for a mutilating punishment. Tiying accompanied her father there and sent a letter to Emperor Wu of Han. In it she lamented the unjust incrimination of her father and offered to become a palace slave in place of her father’s sentence. The emperor was moved by her filial piety and not only removed her father’s punishment, but also abolished the mutilation punishment altogether.