16歲英國女孩給中國新生兒取英文名

16歲英國女孩給中國新生兒取英文名

16-year-old British Schoolgirl Turns Entrepreneur and Earns ￡50,000 Advising Chinese Parents on English Baby Names

By Mark Duell for MailOnline 譯/李藝雯

英國女孩博?杰瑟普和她創立的起名網站

英國一個16歲的女孩建立網站，專門為中國人起英文名字，她已經靠這個賺到4.8萬英鎊(約合42.7萬元人民幣)。

網站建立僅半年時間，英國女孩博?杰瑟普已經為超過22萬個中國新生兒取英文名，并且這個數字還在持續增長。

杰瑟普之前曾和父母來中國旅游，當時她正和家人在外面吃飯，她的朋友請她為一個新生兒取英文名，這使她深受啟發。回到英國后，她便創建了網站SpecialName.cn專門為中國的新生兒取英文名。

A 16-year-old British schoolgirl has earned ￡48,000 giving Chinese babies English names.

Beau Jessup from Edge, Gloucestershire, has so far suggested names for 221,000 Chinese babies in six months and her unusual business is booming.

Beau set up SpecialName.cn after spending time in China where she was asked repeatedly to suggest an English name by friends expecting a f rst child.

There has been a growing demand in the last 20 years to adopt an additional English name. This would be for use on email and for study and business in the West, but these names were chosen at school by an English teacher or even by pupils.

Beau said: “When I went to China I kept being asked to name babies for my parents’ friends. They explained an English name is vital because you can’t use a Chinese name on email or a university application to the UK. Your English name stays with you for life.”

”But I also heard lots of examples where people had chosen culturally inappropriate English names they’d heard from f lms or read online.”

“It made me realise there was an opportunity to help Chinese people get it right from the start.”

To solve the problem Beau developed SpecialName to suggest culturally appropriate English names to prospective parents based on their ideals and aspirations for their child. It ref ects the Chinese tradition for creating unique namesfor their children.

近20年來，因為留學、商業交流的需要，中國人對于英文名的需求越來越旺盛，然而很多人的英文名都是在學校里由英語老師甚至是同學之間隨便起的，顯得不夠地道。

杰瑟普說：“我去中國的時候，我父母的朋友們一直讓我給他們的孩子起英文名。他們解釋說英文名至關重要，因為在郵件里或者留學申請中不能用中文名字。英文名也會伴隨他們一生。”

“我也聽說過一些取自電影或網絡上的名字，但實際上這些名字是不符合西方文化的，而且容易引起誤會。于是我發覺這是個商機。”

為了解決這一問題，杰瑟普創建了網站，在這個網站上中國父母能根據對孩子的期望選擇一個地道又合適的英文名。這也符合中國人喜歡給孩子取獨一無二的名字的傳統。

中國人起名注重單字含義，因此起英文名也需要適應中國用戶的習慣。網站把每個名字都與性格特征聯系起來，用戶在給出的12種性格，比如敏感度、誠實度、自信心等中選擇5種對孩子的期待，并從數據分析后給出的三個英文名字選項中選擇自己喜歡的一個。網站還會介紹名字的含義，以及同名的著名人物。

每次起名服務收費60便士（約合人民幣5.3元），整個起名流程只需要3分鐘。

Special Name.cn取名網站首頁

目前，她的網站月均瀏覽量達到27000人次，每月進賬16000英鎊（約合人民幣14.2萬元）。杰瑟普說，能建立這樣一個網站幫助他人，自己感到很自豪，杰瑟普的網站收入將用來支付自己的大學學費。杰瑟普每天花兩小時與中國客戶交流如何提升網站服務質量，再用一小時來改進。考慮到父母都喜歡曬寶寶的照片，她的網站還建立了照片分享功能，慢慢地把起名網站擴展成一個在線社交分享社區。

The website invites parents to select from a list of 12 personality traits including sensitive, honest and confident, to best describe their aspirations for their baby.

The site then analyses the choices and suggests a shortlist of three culturally-appropriate names. The shortlist is presented along with their meaning and a famous namesake.

The naming service costs the equivalent of 60p for three names and takes just over three minutes from start to f nish.

The site has grown, now averaging 27,000 visitors and earning ￡16,000 in sales per month.

Beau says she is proud to play a part in so many happy occasions and plans to use the money she has earned so far from the site to help pay for her university fees.

She added: ‘There are babies being born every day and they all need a Special Name. I like the idea of providing a service that enhances such a happy occasion.”

“I have a target to reach which will allow me to pay for my university fees .”

“I spend two hours a day talking to my customers asking how I can make the service better and about an hour making improvements.”

“Since parents love sharing photos of their babies, I have recently added a gallery, so I’m gradually building a SpecialName community.”