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Where’s that damn baby “at?”

Ok. No doubt, if you’ve spent two minutes in China, you’ve certainly come across someone who has an usual English name. I’ve met “Crazy Chick,” “Superman,” “Lionheart,” “Merovingian,” and an unfortunate kid named “Beak” who had a larger than average nose.

In any case, the Chinese preoccupation with choosing a name that has a good meaning quite often will result in a name that just induces stifled laughter among all who first meet them. This is common when choosing an English name. Just ask Chris about his old students Nazi and Christ.

And of course this all stems from the Chinese tradition of choosing a good Chinese name for their kid. While in English, the name Bob doesn’t mean jack-shit, in Chinese the name Xiaohong (literally, Little Red) could imply her parents love for their country or possible affiliation with the Communist Party.

So while it does strike me as unusual, it doesn’t come as any surprise that some dumb-ass couple have tried to name their new baby “@.”

Logic:
@ pronounced using phonetic pinyin, would be AI TA.
AI = 爱 = Love
TA = 他 = Him
Thus the @ symbol would mean “love him.”

Listen guys… If you do indeed love him, name him something else.

How about “Prince?”

h/t to The World as I Know it