Planning on naming your baby Jacob or Emily? Be forewarned, those two names topped the US most popular list again last year — Emily for the 11th year running.
The 2007 top baby names list released by the US Social Security Administration for Mother’s Day showed Americans consistent in their love for classical names: Michael, Ethan, Joshua and Daniel topped out the top five on the boys side, while Isabella, Emma, Ava and Madison were favorites for girls.
But the list showed that plenty were striving to be unique, creating wholly new names like Nevaeh — “heaven” spelled backwards — or sometimes just taking extreme orthographical liberty with better-known monikers.
PHOTO: AP
“For reasons likely to puzzle baby name experts around the world, American parents have become infatuated by names, particularly for their sons, that rhyme with the word ‘maiden,’” the SSA said.
It counted 34 such names in the top 1,000 for boys, including homonymic variations Jayden, Jaden, Jaiden, Jaydon, Jadon, Jaeden, Jadyn, Jaydin, Jaidyn and Jaydan.
Despite the freewheeling spellings, spokesman Mark Lassiter said the SSA “would resist any legislative efforts to standardize the spelling of names,” according to an agency statement.
Aside from variants on “heaven,” the SSA pointed to the popularity of philosophical ideals for girls’ names: Destiny (No. 41), Trinity (No. 72), Serenity (No. 126), Harmony (No. 315) and Miracle (No. 461).
Fast-rising names included Danica, now at No. 307, for top female race car driver Danica Patrick, and JaMarcus, No. 743, for football star JaMarcus Russell.(AFP)
想幫小孩取名為雅各或艾蜜莉嗎?先提醒您,這兩個名字去年再度衛冕全美最受歡迎的名字,而且艾蜜莉已經蟬連十一年冠軍了。
美國社會安全局為迎接母親節公佈了二OO七年嬰兒命名排行榜,結果顯示美國民眾對經典名字的偏好不變,其中排名前五名的男孩名字還包括:麥克、伊森、約書亞和丹尼爾,而伊莎貝拉、艾瑪、艾娃和麥德森也是最受喜愛的女孩名字。
但排行榜也顯示,很多人想給孩子取個特別的名字,他們自創了一些新名字,像是「Nevaeh」(「Heaven(天堂)」的倒寫);有些則是隨意拼寫大家耳熟能詳的名字。
社會安全局表示:「美國的父母為兒子取名時,尤其喜歡和「maiden」押同韻,這讓全世界的嬰兒命名師感到不解。」
在前一千個最受歡迎的男孩名中,就有三十四個這類同音不同拼法的名字,包括「Jayden」、「Jaden」、「Jaiden」、「Jaydon」、「Jadon」、「Jaeden」、「Jadyn」、「Jaydin」、「Jaidyn」和「Jaydan」。
儘管有這些隨性的拼法,社會安全局發言人馬克.萊錫特在一份聲明中表示,局方「不希望政府立法將姓名拼法標準化」。
除了各種「天堂」的變型名字外,社會安全局也指出一些有哲學意涵的女生名字,如:排名四十一的黛絲特妮(天意)、排名七十二的崔娜蒂(三位一體)、排名一百二十六的薩瑞娜蒂(安詳)、排名三百一十五的哈孟妮(和諧),以及排名四百六十一的米芮蔻(奇蹟)。
排名迅速竄升的名字包括三百零七名的丹妮卡,其名人代表為頂尖女賽車手丹妮卡.派翠克,還有排名七百四十三的賈馬克思,其名人代表為足球明星賈馬克思.羅素。(法新社�翻譯:袁星塵)
A: Wow, three Taiwanese restaurants just won the 2024 “Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants” awards. B: Awesome! Which three restaurants? A: Taipei’s Logy at No. 22 and MUME at No. 34, and Taichung’s JL Studio at No. 33. B: Actually, there are many more great establishments in Taipei. How about other Asian cities? A: Singapore claimed nine spots this year, making it Asia’s new “food capital.” A: 2024「亞洲50最佳餐廳」名單揭曉了,台灣有3家餐廳上榜。 B: 好厲害,哪3家? A: 台北的Logy和MUME分獲第22和34名,台中的JL Studio獲第33名! B: 其實台北還有很多好餐廳,那其他的亞洲城市呢? A: 新加坡今年入選9家,可說是亞洲美食之都。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Let’s explore another delicacy primarily known to Tainan locals: floating milkfish in thick soup. Despite its peculiar name, this dish is another Tainan specialty that showcases the popularity of milkfish, which is made into fish paste and served in thick soup. Unlike the version with tutuo fish, which also adds other ingredients to its thick soup, the floating milkfish version primarily features the “floating fish” itself in its thick soup, ensuring that the fish paste remains the star of the dish. 讓我們來探索另一道台南人熟悉的美食:浮水魚羹。這道菜名奇特的美食,再再展現了台南虱目魚料理的多樣。浮水魚羹是用虱目魚漿做成的羹品,雖然和𩵚魠魚羹一樣是羹湯,但不像𩵚魠魚羹會在湯中加入其他食材,而是讓虱目魚漿成為這道料理的主角。 peculiar (adj.) 獨特的;古怪的 The belly of a milkfish is considered the most
The practice of freezing embryos as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) was thrown into chaos in Alabama this year, when the state supreme court ruled that such embryos should be considered children, exposing clinics to wrongful death claims in the event they are destroyed in the thawing process. In 2021, more than 80 percent of US IVF procedures involved the transfer of frozen embryos, according to a recent report by the US Department of Health and Human Services. HOW IS EMBRYO FREEZING USED IN IVF? IVF uses high doses of hormones to stimulate ovaries to produce as many eggs as possible. Once
A situation puzzle is a game in which one person describes a scenario and asks the players to explain it. The situation is deliberately lacking in details, but the players may acquire more information by asking questions — however, these can only be answered with “yes” or “no.” A player wins by describing the approximate events that led up to the situation. To do so, they must use a blend of logical and lateral thinking. A famous example of this is sometimes known as “Turtle Soup.” Here’s the riddle: “A man in a restaurant orders turtle soup, tastes it