16岁英国女孩给中国新生儿取英文名

16岁英国女孩给中国新生儿取英文名

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

By Mark Duell for MailOnline 译/李艺雯

英国女孩博・杰瑟普和她创立的起名网站

英国一个16岁的女孩建立网站，专门为中国人起英文名字，她已经靠这个赚到4.8万英镑(约合42.7万元人民币)。

网站建立仅半年时间，英国女孩博・杰瑟普已经为超过22万个中国新生儿取英文名，并且这个数字还在持续增长。

杰瑟普之前曾和父母来中国旅游，当时她正和家人在外面吃饭，她的朋友请她为一个新生儿取英文名，这使她深受启发。回到英国后，她便创建了网站SpecialName.cn专门为中国的新生儿取英文名。

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年来，因为留学、商业交流的需要，中国人对于英文名的需求越来越旺盛，然而很多人的英文名都是在学校里由英语老师甚至是同学之间随便起的，显得不够地道。

杰瑟普说：“我去中国的时候，我父母的朋友们一直让我给他们的孩子起英文名。他们解释说英文名至关重要，因为在邮件里或者留学申请中不能用中文名字。英文名也会伴随他们一生。”

“我也听说过一些取自电影或网络上的名字，但实际上这些名字是不符合西方文化的，而且容易引起误会。于是我发觉这是个商机。”

为了解决这一问题，杰瑟普创建了网站，在这个网站上中国父母能根据对孩子的期望选择一个地道又合适的英文名。这也符合中国人喜欢给孩子取独一无二的名字的传统。

中国人起名注重单字含义，因此起英文名也需要适应中国用户的习惯。网站把每个名字都与性格特征联系起来，用户在给出的12种性格，比如敏感度、诚实度、自信心等中选择5种对孩子的期待，并从数据分析后给出的三个英文名字选项中选择自己喜欢的一个。网站还会介绍名字的含义，以及同名的著名人物。

每次起名服务收费60便士（约合人民币5.3元），整个起名流程只需要3分钟。

Special Name.cn取名网站首页

目前，她的网站月均浏览量达到27000人次，每月进账16000英镑（约合人民币14.2万元）。杰瑟普说，能建立这样一个网站帮助他人，自己感到很自豪，杰瑟普的网站收入将用来支付自己的大学学费。杰瑟普每天花两小时与中国客户交流如何提升网站服务质量，再用一小时来改进。考虑到父母都喜欢晒宝宝的照片，她的网站还建立了照片分享功能，慢慢地把起名网站扩展成一个在线社交分享社区。

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.”