A Chinese couple seeking a modern, one of a kind name for their child chose the commonly used Internet symbol "@" or "at," much to the consternation of Chinese officials.
The unidentified couple and the attempted naming were cited on Aug. 16 by a Chinese government official as an example of bizarre names creeping into the Chinese language.
According to Li Yuming, the vice director of the State Language Commission, the father said, "the whole world uses it to write e-mails and translated into Chinese it means 'love him."
Photo: AP
The symbol "@" pronounced in English as "at" sounds like the Chinese phrase "love him." Written Chinese does not use an alphabet but is comprised of characters, sometimes making it difficult to develop new words for new or foreign things and ideas.
In their quest for a different name, Li said that the parents of baby "@" were not alone. As of last year, only 129 surnames accounted for 87 percent of all surnames in China, Li said, suggesting that the uniformity drove people to find more individual given names.
"There was even a 'Zhao-A,' a 'King Osrina' and other extremely individualistic names," Li said, according to a transcript of the news conference posted on the government's main web site, www.gov.cn
Li did not say whether police, who are the arbiters of names because they issue identity cards, rejected baby "@" and the others.
But nationwide last year "unfamiliar characters" were used in the names of 60 million people, Li said.(AP)
一對中國夫婦想幫小孩取個摩登且獨特的名字，他們選了網際網路上常用的符號「@」（或叫「at」），令當地的官員大感驚訝。
一位中國官員於八月十六日，以這對夫婦和他們想取的名字為例，表示怪名字正逐漸侵入中國的語言。
中國國家語言文字工作委員會副主任李宇明表示，這位父親說：「全世界寫電子郵件都會用這個符號，而翻譯成中文就是『愛他』。」
「@」這個符號的英文發音是「at」，聽起來就像中文的「愛他」。書寫中文時並不用字母系統，而是以文字呈現，有時要幫新的或外國的事物或思想創造新字時較困難。
李副主任說，「@」寶寶的父母不是唯一想取怪名字的人。到去年為止，一百二十九個主要姓氏佔了中國所有姓氏的百分之八十七，姓氏的相同性驅使人們開始追尋個人化的名字。
根據他在中國政府主要網站「www.gov.cn」的演講稿指出：「甚至有人叫『趙─A』、『奧斯銳娜王』這類極端個性化的名字。」
他並未說明核發身分證的警方是否拒絕了「@」和其他怪名字。
但他說，去年全國有六千萬人的名字有「冷僻字」。（美聯社／翻譯︰張愛弟）
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