Couple wants to name baby "@"
By foxyfire33
@foxyfire33 (10005)
United States
August 16, 2007 1:11pm CST
A couple in China requested to name their baby boy @. According to the father, when it is translated into Chinese it means "love him". Apparently it's just the latest attempt by parents to give their children unique names.
Here's the link (if it works)... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_fe_st/china_name_blame;_ylt=AiaIyvJ3sxMc9nF98JsJNBmsONUE
I think that if this was tried anywhere else,it would seem completely absurd. But since it's in China which uses symbols rather than individual alphabet letters, I don't see why it's a big deal. The only thing I'm wondering about is what his spoken name will be...will they say "at" or "love him"?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@firumon (501)
• India
18 Aug 07
Hi friend, its nice to hear.. I have laughed too much after reading your this discussion... I found the joke more from your question that what we call him.. 'At' or 'love him'...
Chinese names are much different from the others... But in this case i think they call him as LI YUMING, love him in chinese, have described in that news...
Here have one gossip regarding to this chinese naming.. Whenever a baby born, his father and mother together put a steel plate into floor.. The plate will fall there with a certain sound.. The sound is some thing like shin sho shu, and call their baby with that sound... That will be his name forever.. Just a gossip...
Here we put name to babies which have some thing relation to their father and mother... For example in my home.. My father's name is starting with H and my mother's name starting with F.. So their sons put the name starting with F and daughters with H...
Every country have their own habits..
Thats all dear friend... Thank you....
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
18 Aug 07
Thank you for clearing that up! The article I read about it wasn't very clear and only kept referring to "at" or "love him" so it was hard to know what they were going to call him. The way you explained it makes much more sense!
@maddysmommy (16230)
• United States
17 Aug 07
Hmmm that is rather unusual isn't it?!? I feel for the kid more than the parents though, I mean what do you call him? Hi at, Hi love him, doesn't make any sense to me!
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
17 Aug 07
That's what confuses me too. I mean I get that the written name "@" won't stand out that much among the Chinese symbols but what will his spoken name be? Maybe the English words at or love him won't sound all that unusual...no different than the many words we use from other languages but what about if he comes here to study or work or live? It will seem odd then probably or else he'll have to choose an "American name" to fit in, I don't know.
@squaretile (3778)
• Singapore
20 Aug 07
well, @ sounds like Ai. Ai is the Chinese word for love. So when they say "Ai" it'll sound like both.
This reminds me of the artist that was formerly known as prince. i haven't even seen what his symbol is like. Anyway, @ is not like other chinese characters and means nothing in chinese script, so the kid will probably have trouble all his life. this kind of stunt by parents usually serves to make the parents more famous and saddles the kid all his life. poor kid is alll i can say. They could call him "ai" with the chinese script, and perhaps when he fills in english forms he can put @ as his first name instead of the phonetic Ai.
@foxyfire33 (10005)
• United States
16 Aug 07
I have no idea if it is "allowed" here or in China. If I read the article right, it hasn't been decied yet if they will allow the baby in China to be named @. Here, naming policies are pretty lenient. A baby can be named pretty much whatever the parents' wish to name it.
