A British teen has come up with an ingenious tool to help Chinese parents choose an English name for their babies.
Sixteen-year-old Beau Jessup was on a family trip to China when she was asked to select an English name for her father’s friend’s newborn. As Jessup explained to the BBC, it can be important to parents for their child to have an English name if they ultimately want to study or do business in the UK. There’s just one tiny problem: Access to western culture is restricted by the Chinese government.
Without open access to the Internet, Chinese parents can’t use baby naming websites that parents in the UK might use. Sometimes, this results in some interesting English name choices.
“Being exposed to luxury items and things like Harry Potter, Disney films and Lord of the Rings means they use those for reference,” Jessup told BBC. “I once heard of someone called Gandalf and another called Cinderella.”
Jessup decided to create a website called Special Name. For a fee, users select five of 12 possible personality traits they hope their baby will have.
Parents indicate the gender of their baby, and then three names are suggested. Each of these three suggestions is printed on a certificate, along with their meanings and a famous person with the name.
So far, this clever teen has helped name over 235,000 babies. Pretty cool, huh? She saw the demand for a niche service and jumped at the opportunity to help parents make solid name choices. Because let’s face it, there’s only enough room in this crazy universe for one Cinderella and one Gandalf.
Screenshots via Special Name
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