50元起个英文名,你愿意吗？

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岁的美国女商人决定向中国年轻人们使用的“奇葩”英文名宣战，誓要将她的客户从“Lady Gaga、Washing Liquid和Furry”这些绰号一样的名字中拯救出来。

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.

为了帮助那些普通话发音困难也不太能记得住中文名字的外国友人或潜在雇主，中国人通常会给自己起个英文名。

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.

但这些名字的选择经常是令人吃惊的，生于美国孟费斯并在伦敦的圣约翰伍德生活了6年的林德塞·杰尼根如是说。

Hoping to change that, Ms Jernigan recently launched BestEnglishName.Com, a website designed to help Chinese name-seekers avoid embarrassment.

为了改变这个现状，杰尼根最近开设了一个名为BestEnglishName.Com的网站，旨在帮助那些想取英文名的中国人避免尴尬。

“We can help you find a name that is cool and unique but that won’t make Westerners feel uneasy,” the website promises.

该网站承诺：“我们可以帮你找到称心独特而不会让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”.

现居上海的杰尼根说，选择糟糕的名字可能会导致本人被“边缘化”或者会遭别人背地里嘲笑。

“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.”

“你的名字是留给别人的第一印象，它将决定别人如何记住你，是你的个人标志。因此假如你有一个会让别人觉得不舒服或者是完全让人困惑不解的名字，那么这将会成为你所有未来对话、介绍和关系的障碍。”

For 50 yuan (£5.45), visitors to the website can take a quiz that supplies them with five “automatically generated names” that have been vetted by the company.

用户花50元（5.45英镑）就可以在该网站上进行一个测试并得到五个自动生成的英文名，这些名字就是经过该公司筛选的。

A one-hour advice session with Ms Jernigan costs 200 yuan.

杰尼根一场一小时的咨询交流需花费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.

获得认可的名字包括Claire Dane的Claire（克莱尔），Kenneth Branagh的Kenneth（肯尼斯），Jackson Five的Jackson（杰克逊）。Mars Bar的Mars（玛尔斯），Cherry Cola的Cherry（彻丽、彻里），Chevrolet Corvette的Chevrolet（雪佛兰）这些名字都被“打了差评”。

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.

该网站每月网页浏览量达3万，迄今为止大部分客户都是年轻女性，她们很多都正准备申请到海外留学。她们来自杭州、昆明、上海、温州和成都等城市。

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.

杰尼根说她的客户最喜欢的名字有Lexi（莱克茜）、Isla（伊斯拉）和Kendal（肯德尔）等女性名字，还有Austin（奥斯汀）、Carson（卡尔森）和Malcolm（马尔科姆）等男性名字。她所见到过的最让人崩溃的名字有Paradise、Sapphire、Moon、Lady Gaga和Washing Liquid。

Ms Jernigan said she had also come across young women named Larry and Gary.

杰尼根提到她还遇到过名字叫Larry（拉里，男子名）和Gary（加里，男子名）的年轻女性。

“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.

“取一个好的英文名真的非常重要，否则会让你看起来并不了解西方文化，并不那么的聪明[也许是如此]。”杰尼根说道。最近，这位美国女实业家又遇到令她困惑不解的事了：她遇到一个叫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.

“我怎么也不能理解这一个（名字）。他们总是把形容词和名字混用，但这个名字真是奇怪呢，”她说。

The 10 best and worst names, according to BestEnglishName.Com founder Lindsay Jernigan

BestEnglishName.Com网站创始人林德塞·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——奥斯汀（男性名）

Carson——卡尔森（男性名）

Malcolm——马尔科姆（男性名）

Harrison——哈里森、哈里逊

Mackenzie——麦肯齐、麦肯锡

Lexi——莱克茜（女性名）

Kendal——肯德尔（女性名）

Alexis——亚历克西斯、阿莱克西斯（男子名）

Norah——诺拉（女性名）

Cara——卡拉（女性名）

WORST

十大最坏名字

Mars——玛尔斯

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“女性阴部”之意

Twinkle

Kanye——卡内、肯伊 Elvis——埃尔维斯（男子名）

Vocabulary

farcical：荒谬的

appallingly：令人毛骨悚然的

detrimental：有害的

bamboozled：迷惑的