@ 41186 Pregnancy Series 7 Choosing a Name for the Baby

Pregnancy Series 7 Choosing a Name for the Baby HTML

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A:   老公，孩子的名字我們自己起吧。不要讓你媽算什麼生辰八字，又迷信又難聽。

lǎogōng, háizi de míngzi wǒmén zìjǐ qǐ ba. bù yào ràng nǐ mā calculate shénme shēngchénbāzì, yòu míxìn yòu nántīng.

Darling, let's think of a name for the baby by ourselves. Let's not have your mom look at the eight characters that express the baby's birth. It's superstitious, and the names sound bad.

B:   你別激動，小心嚇壞了寶寶。

nǐ bié jīdòng, xiǎoxīn xià huài le bǎobao.

Don't get excited-- don't scare little precious.

A:   她今天拿了一張紙給我，都是找人算命起的名字。你自己看，什麼李金鵬，李金濤，俗不俗啊？現在哪有小孩叫這種名字？說出去還不被人笑死。

tā jīntiān ná le yī zhāng zhǐ gěi wǒ, dōu shì zhǎo rén suànmìng qǐ de míngzi. nǐzìjǐ kàn, shénme Lǐ Jīnpéng, Lǐ Jīntāo, sú bù sú ā? xiànzài nǎyǒu xiǎohái jiào zhèzhǒng míngzi? shuō chūqù hái bù bèi rén xiào sǐ.

She gave me a piece of paper today. It had a bunch of names that she got from fortune-tellers. Look for yourself-- there's stuff like ''Li Jinpeng," ''Li Jintao"-- are those common or what? What kind of kids have names like that these days? You couldn't say them without people laughing.

B:   媽也是一片好心嘛。我回頭跟她說說，名字還是由我們來決定。對了，你那時候不是說叫孩子“李於” 嗎？我覺得挺好，我們倆的姓放在一起。而且男女都能用。

mā yě shì yīpiànhǎoxīn ma. wǒ huítóu gēn tā shuō shuo, míngzi hái shì yóu wǒmen lái juédìng. duìle, nǐ nà shíhou bù shì shuō jiào háizi" lǐyú” ma? wǒ juéde tǐng hǎo, wǒmen liǎ de xìng fàng zài yīqǐ. érqiě nánnǚ dōu néng yòng.

She has good intentions. I'll talk it over with her in a bit-- the name should be chosen by us. Oh, right-- didn't you say one time that you wanted to call the baby ''Li Yu?" I think that's a great name. It combines both of our surnames. And it would fit a boy or a girl.

A:   可是我現在想想，不能用這個名字。你想，李於，李於，別人聽了還以為是一條“鯉魚”呢。否決！

kěshì wǒ xiànzài xiǎng xiang, bùnéng yòng zhè ge míngzi. nǐ xiǎng, Lǐ yú, Lǐ yú, biérén tīng le hái yǐwéi shì yī tiáo" lǐyú” ne. fǒujué!

But thinking about it now, we can't use that name. Think about it-- when they hear it, people will think it's a carp. Veto! [Carp is pronounced Lǐyú in Chinese--Ed.]

B:   那能不能叫李庸？

nà néngbùnéng jiào Lǐ Yōng?

Well, could we call the baby ''Li Yong?"

A:   你就知道武俠小說。還是否決。我可不想讓孩子一輩子平庸。

nǐ jiù zhīdào wǔxiá xiǎoshuō. hái shì fǒujué. wǒ kě bù xiǎng ràng háizi yībèizi píngyōng.

You only know about martial arts novels. I'm vetoing it. I definitely don't want the baby to be mediocre his whole life [the character ''yong" here implies ''middle."--Ed.]

B:   那金庸一點兒也不平庸啊。算了算了，那你說叫什麼好吧？

nà JīnYōng yīdiǎnr5 yě bù píngyōng ā. suànle suànle, nà nǐ shuō jiào shénme hǎo ba?

[Marital arts novelist] Jin Yong isn't mediocre at all. Forget it-- what do you think we should call the baby?

A:   我覺得應該給寶寶取一個獨一無二的名字。你把字典拿來。

wǒ juéde yīnggāi gěi bǎobao qǔ yī ge dúyīwú èr de míngzi. nǐ bǎ zìdiǎn nálái.

I think we should give the baby a unique name. Bring over that dictionary.

B:   你千萬別挑生僻字啊。以後別人連寶寶的名字都讀不出來，多尷尬。

nǐ qiānwàn bié tiāo shēngpìzì ā. yǐhòu biérén lián bǎobao de míngzi dōu dú bù chūlái, duō gāngà.

Whatever you do, don't pick a rare character. When people can't even read the baby's name later on, it'll be so awkward.

A:   要麼起四個字的名字？李於後面再加兩個字。

yàome qǐ sì ge zì de míngzi? LǐYú hòumian zài jiā liǎng ge zì.

How about we come up with a four-letter name? We can add two characters after ''Li Yu."

B:   你不是自己說李於不好嗎？而且四個字的名字現在是時髦，以後肯定很奇怪。哎，我一直覺得我爺爺的名字好。要不取他名字裡的一個字？

nǐ bù shì zìjǐ shuō Lǐyú bù hǎo ma? érqiě sì ge zì de míngzi xiànzài shì shímáo, yǐhòu kěndìng hěn qíguài. āi, wǒ continuously juéde wǒ yéye de míngzi hǎo. yàobu qǔ tā míngzi lǐ de yī ge zì?

Didn't you say that ''Li Yu" is no good? And four-character names are fashionable now, but they'll definitely be strange in the future. Oh, I've always thought that my grandpa's name was really good. How about we use a character from his name?

A:   你懂不懂規矩啊，用長輩的名字可是最忌諱的。

nǐ dǒng bù dǒng guīju ā, yòng zhǎngbèi de míngzi kěshì zuì jìhuì de.

Do you understand the rules, or not? Using names from the older generation is the biggest taboo!

B:   啊喲，現在起名字真難。我們生下來的時候，父母隨便起一個名字。我們不也挺好的嘛！

āyō, xiànzài qǐ míngzì zhēn nán. wǒmen shēngxiàlai de shíhou, fùmǔ suíbiàn qǐ yī ge míngzi. wǒmen bù yě tǐng hǎo de ma!

Oh, coming up with a name is really hard these days! When we were born, our parents just casually came up with a name. Aren't we fine?

A:   什麼？你是說我的名字難聽嗎？

shénme? nǐ shì shuō wǒ de míngzi nántīng ma?

What? Are you saying my name sounds bad?

Key Vocabulary

生辰八字 shēngchénbāzì

迷信 míxìn

算命 suànmìng

俗 sú

一片好心 yīpiànhǎoxīn

鯉魚 lǐyú

武俠小說 wǔxiá xiǎoshuō

否決 fǒujué

平庸 píngyōng

金庸 JīnYōng

獨一無二 dúyīwú èr

生僻字 shēngpìzì

尷尬 gāngà

時髦 shímáo

規矩 guīju

忌諱 jìhuì

Supplementary Vocabulary

起名字 qǐ míngzi

取名字 qǔ míngzi

土 tǔ

中庸 zhōngyōng

聯合國安理會 liánhéguó ānlǐhuì

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Diccionario

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