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Bizarre names not where it’s @, China says
Government upset by parents’ request to name son after e-mail ‘at’ symbol

BEIJING - A Chinese couple seeking a distinctive name for their child settled on the e-mail ‘at’ symbol — annoying government officials grappling with an influx of unorthodox names.

The unidentified couple were cited Thursday by a government official as an example of citizens bringing bizarre names into the Chinese language.

Written Chinese does not use an alphabet but is comprised of characters, sometimes making it difficult to develop words for new or foreign objects and ideas. As of last year, only 129 names accounted for 87 percent of all surnames in China, Li Yuming, vice director of the State Language Commission, said at a news conference.

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These parents do have a slight reason for naming him that. The @ symbol is pronounced Ai Ta by the Chinese, which means 'love him'. I think that was what I read somewhere. But still, why not name him Ai Ta?

Stop being so self-righteous and let them get on with their life.

These parents do have a slight reason for naming him that. The @ symbol is pronounced Ai Ta by the Chinese, which means 'love him'. I think that was what I read somewhere. But still, why not name him Ai Ta?

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@," claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday.
The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.
"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.
While the "@" symbol is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta," or "love him," to Mandarin speakers.
Li told a news conference on the state of the language that the name was an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialisation and the Internet break down conventions.
Another couple tried to give their child a name that rendered into English sounds like "King Osrina."
Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals, foreign languages and symbols that do not belong to Chinese minority languages.
Sixty million Chinese faced the problem that their names use ancient characters so obscure that computers cannot recognize them and even fluent speakers were left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript of the briefing on the government Web site (http://www.gov.cn).
One of them was the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name had a rare "rong" character that gave newspaper editors headaches.

There is the news report I read on it.

I just think that the parents need to get past how cool a name is, and think how it'll affect the child later on. How do you sign your name up for something? A computer normally isn't set to accept the @ symbol. Yes, the child MAY like the name. The child MAY hate the name. You have to do what you think is best for a child.

I'm not intending to argue, I just think that this is a big topic that might come up again and again.

These parents do have a slight reason for naming him that. The @ symbol is pronounced Ai Ta by the Chinese, which means 'love him'. I think that was what I read somewhere. But still, why not name him Ai Ta?

No matter how it's pronounced, people are still going to call him "At Symbol" or something like that the first time they see it. I can see it now...the teacher reading off the attendance list on the first day: "Susie Jones?" "Here." "Mark Smith?" "Here." "...uh...At Symbol? O_o" *the kid on the left side of the third row tries to hunch down in his seat and be invisible*

I'm still claiming rights to name my child Leekspin Remy.