15元起個英文名,你愿意嗎？

A 25-year-old American businesswoman has declared war on the “farcical” western names being adopted by young Chinese, vowing to liberate her clients from monikers that include Lady Gaga, Washing Liquid and Furry.
一名25歲的美國女商人決定向中國年輕人們使用的“奇葩”英文名宣戰，誓要將她的客戶從“Lady Gaga、Washing Liquid和Furry”這些綽號一樣的名字中拯救出來。

Chinese people often take a “yingwen ming” or “English name” in order to help foreign friends or potential employers who struggle to pronounce or remember their Mandarin ones.
為了幫助那些普通話發音困難也不太能記得住中文名字的外國友人或潛在雇主，中國人通常會給自己起個英文名。

But such names were often appallingly chosen, said Lindsay Jernigan, who was born in Memphis but spent six years living in St John’s Wood, London.
但這些名字的選擇經常是令人吃驚的，生于美國孟費斯并在倫敦的圣約翰伍德生活了6年的林德塞·杰尼根如是說。

Hoping to change that, Ms Jernigan recently launched BestEnglishName.Com, a website designed to help Chinese name-seekers avoid embarrassment.
為了改變這個現狀，杰尼根最近開設了一個名為BestEnglishName.Com的網站，旨在幫助那些想取英文名的中國人避免尷尬。

“We can help you find a name that is cool and unique but that won’t make Westerners feel uneasy,” the website promises.
該網站承諾：“我們可以幫你找到稱心獨特而不會讓西方人感到奇怪的名字。”

Ms Jernigan, who lives in Shanghai, said poorly chosen names could lead to their owners being “marginalised” or “laughed at behind their backs”.
現居上海的杰尼根說，選擇糟糕的名字可能會導致本人被“邊緣化”或者會遭別人背地里嘲笑。

“Your name is your first impression, it is what people are going to remember you by, it is your personal brand. So if you have one that makes people uncomfortable or is just completely confusing then it is going to be a barrier in all future conversations, introductions or relationships.”
“你的名字是留給別人的第一印象，它將決定別人如何記住你，是你的個人標志。因此假如你有一個會讓別人覺得不舒服或者是完全讓人困惑不解的名字，那么這將會成為你所有未來對話、介紹和關系的障礙。”

For?15 yuan, visitors to the website can take a quiz that supplies them with five “automatically generated names” that have been vetted by the company.
用戶花15元就可以在該網站上進行一個測試并得到五個自動生成的英文名，這些名字就是經過該公司篩選的。

A one-hour advice session with Ms Jernigan costs 200 yuan.
杰尼根一場一小時的咨詢交流需花費200元。

Names that get the thumbs up include Claire, as in Claire Danes, Kenneth as in Kenneth Branagh and Jackson, as in the Jackson Five. Mars, as in Mars Bar, Cherry, as in Cherry Cola, and Chevrolet, as in Chevrolet Corvette, all get the thumbs down.
獲得認可的名字包括Claire Dane的Claire（克萊爾），Kenneth Branagh的Kenneth（肯尼斯），Jackson Five的Jackson（杰克遜）。Mars Bar的Mars（瑪爾斯），Cherry Cola的Cherry（徹麗、徹里），Chevrolet Corvette的Chevrolet（雪佛蘭）這些名字都被“打了差評”。

The website has received 30,000 page views per month and most clients so far were young women preparing applications to study overseas. They came from cities including Hangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai, Wenzhou and Chengdu.
該網站每月網頁瀏覽量達3萬，迄今為止大部分客戶都是年輕女性，她們很多都正準備申請到海外留學。她們來自杭州、昆明、上海、溫州和成都等城市。

Ms Jernigan said the most popular names among her clients were Lexi, Isla and Kendal for women and Austin, Carson and Malcolm for men. Among the most unfortunate names she had encountered were Paradise, Sapphire, Moon, Lady Gaga and Washing Liquid.
杰尼根說她的客戶最喜歡的名字有Lexi（萊克茜）、Isla（伊斯拉）和Kendal（肯德爾）等女性名字，還有Austin（奧斯汀）、Carson（卡爾森）和Malcolm（馬爾科姆）等男性名字。她所見到過的最讓人崩潰的名字有Paradise、Sapphire、Moon、Lady Gaga和Washing Liquid。

Ms Jernigan said she had also come across young women named Larry and Gary.
杰尼根提到她還遇到過名字叫Larry（拉里，男子名）和Gary（加里，男子名）的年輕女性。

“It can be really detrimental because it makes it seem like you don’t understand western culture and are not as smart [as you might be].” Recently the American businesswoman was bamboozled to come across someone called Furry, as in Furry cat.
“取一個好的英文名真的非常重要，否則會讓你看起來并不了解西方文化，并不那么的聰明[也許是如此]。”杰尼根說道。最近，這位美國女實業家又遇到令她困惑不解的事了：她遇到一個叫Furry（弗里，Furry cat里的Furry意指毛茸茸）的人……

“I can’t quite figure that one out. There is a general adjective/name confusion, but this one is just strange,” she said.
“我怎么也不能理解這一個（名字）。他們總是把形容詞和名字混用，但這個名字真是奇怪呢，”她說。

The 10 best and worst names, according to BestEnglishName.Com founder Lindsay Jernigan
BestEnglishName.Com網站創始人林德塞·杰尼根列出的十大最好名字和十大最差名字

BEST
十大最好名字

Austin——奧斯汀（男性名）

Carson——卡爾森（男性名）

Malcolm——馬爾科姆（男性名）

Harrison——哈里森、哈里遜

Mackenzie——麥肯齊、麥肯錫

Lexi——萊克茜（女性名）

Kendal——肯德爾（女性名）

Alexis——亞歷克西斯、阿萊克西斯（男子名）

Norah——諾拉（女性名）

Cara——卡拉（女性名）

WORST
十大最壞名字

Mars——瑪爾斯

Swallow——斯沃洛

Bones——博恩斯

Echo——厄科

Larry (for a girl)——拉里，男子名（用于女性）

Dr

Pussy——有“女性陰部”之意

Twinkle

Kanye——卡內、肯伊 Elvis——埃爾維斯（男子名）

Vocabulary

farcical：荒謬的

appallingly：令人毛骨悚然的

detrimental：有害的

bamboozled：迷惑的

（翻譯：bearhuhu 編輯：Helen）