Can't Name Your Kid @ In China

from the probably-a-good-thing dept

China has decided that a man cannot name his kid "@" because it can't be translated into Mandarin. The man argued that since it's on every keyboard, an exception should be made. However, hopefully the kid will be thankful he doesn't need to go through life with such a... um... name? Either way, I would assume that, at some point, someone has figured out how to translate @ into Mandarin, because there are an awful lot of Mandarin-speaking people with email addresses.
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  • identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 12 Oct 2004 @ 12:16pm

    I'm sure Dorpus will know

    Since (s)he seems to know everything related to Asia, but maybe the translation is "Shift+2"?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Kevin, 12 Oct 2004 @ 3:04pm

    it's interesting

    It's interesting article. Early time,I had convinced my parents to use Email keep communicate with me who are living in south China, I tried to teach them pronounce "@" on a email address once if they're going to tell other people their email address. By the end, they find out their own way, they called "@" in Mandarin "xiao er duo" which means "small ear" or "little rat with tail". they told me that most of their friends use this same meaning-translate to call that little "@" as well.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      hanzie, 15 Oct 2004 @ 6:46am

      Re: it's interesting

      So this child's Chinese name would've literally translated to "little rat with tail"? I think this kid should become a great fan of Chinese administration for sparing him that fate. :-)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    thecaptain, 13 Oct 2004 @ 4:59am

    No Subject Given

    Man, being that stupid when naming your kid is bordering on child abuse...

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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