【一起闲话英语】名字的含义—What's in a name?

 Transcript: 

Presenter¹ 1: Today we are going to talk about names, particularly fashions in names, you know, the kind of names famous people use for their children. You’ve been looking into this recently, haven²’t you Finn?

Presenter 2: I have indeed and it’s a fascinating topic. The US leads here with new names and we in Britain follow sometimes, but we tend to go for the more traditional names. So, the big trend is using nouns as names.

Presenter 1: Nouns, what sort of nouns?

Presenter 2: Well they can be abstract qualities like Honor or Passion. There’s a long tradition of this kind of name, like Faith or Charity, which used to be common names. A new name is Haven, that’s growing in popularity. And similar names like Shelter, Harbor and Bay also convey feelings of safety and warmth.

Presenter 1: Mmm. I suppose Passion is used to mean ‘extreme enthusiasm’ nowadays, and people use the word a lot, so maybe it’s a good choice for a modern name. Haven has a nice, safe feel to it.

Presenter 2: OK, then there are names which come from nature or animals, although with some of these it’s hard to know whether they come from nature or a surname – that’s another trend. Here we have Frost, Wolf, Fox, Bear, for boys, of course. And a new name: Ridge³.

Presenter 1: Ridge, like a mountain ridge? The top of a mountain range?

Presenter 2: Yes, weird⁴, huh? It’s seen as a tough, outdoorsy name for a boy. OK, then there are musical names. Harmony and Melody have been around for ages, but Lyric⁵ is a new one.

Presenter 1: Lyric, wow!

Presenter 2: Yes, it came in at number 325 in the US a couple of years ago. That doesn’t sound very popular, but there are so many different names being used at the moment that it means it isn’t so unusual. Other noun categories are months – May, June and April are common, but January is uncommon⁶ and November very unusual. And then you have colours. Beyoncé and Jay-Z called their daughter Blue Ivy⁷ – a very distinctive⁸ name, a colour plus the name of a plant. Blue is very popular for girls right now, and Red or Grey for boys.

Presenter 1: I’ve just thought of another category. Food names, like Olive or Clementine.

Presenter 2: Yes, that’s another one. Flower names are pretty common, but food names are unusual. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter Apple, of course.

Presenter 1: Yes, poor child.

Presenter 2: Actually, Apple is becoming more and more popular, although people think that’s because of the technology connection, not the fruit. New names always seem strange at first, but you quickly get used to them, like all the names from places or jobs. Chelsea and Brooklyn seem like normal names now; they were strange when they were first used. Taylor, Mason, Cooper are all first names from jobs.

Presenter 1: And they are also surnames, I think that’s how they started.

Presenter 2: You’re probably right there.

Presenter 1: What about the Beckhams’ daughter, Harper?

Presenter 2: She was named after Harper Lee, the American novelist who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. That’s another trend, naming children after famous writers, musicians – the British band One Direction have had an effect on names – or fictional⁹ characters, like Bella or Edward from the Twilight¹⁰ series, or Hermione from Harry¹¹ Potter.

Presenter 1: Sorry, can I just interrupt there. I’ve just has a message passed on by the producer. A listener has just phoned in with a very strange story about a family in Holland with six children. Their names are all anagrams of the letters: A, E, L and X.

Presenter 2: Ah yes, I’ve heard about this. This family are famous in the world of bloggers on names. Let me see if I remember the names … Alex and Axel … and Lexa – they’re the easy ones – Xela ('Zela') and Xael ('Zay-el') and the last one is Xeal ('Zeal') – I’m guessing about the pronunciations, by the way.

Presenter 1: You mean there are names X-E-L-A  and X-A-E-L?

Presenter 2: Yes, but they are very unusual. I think the Dutch family are stopping at six children, but there are about eighteen more possible anagrams they could use.

Presenter 1: Nooo, you’re kidding!

Presenter 2: All seem horrible to me, but all are possible names. This is similar to another trend of giving children names all starting with the same letter, like the Kardashian family, all beginning with K, Kim, Kourtney and so on.

Presenter 1: The Kardashians have had enough publicity¹², let’s not talk about them. What about your name? Finn, that sounds like a good Irish name …

1 presenter   

n.（电视、广播的）主持人，赠与者

参考例句：

• Most people think being a television presenter is exciting.很多人认为当电视节目主持人是一件刺激的事情。
• The programme dispensed with its most popular presenter.这个节目最受欢迎的主持人被换掉了。

2 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

3 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

4 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

5 lyric   

n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的

参考例句：

• This is a good example of Shelley's lyric poetry.这首诗是雪莱抒情诗的范例。
• His earlier work announced a lyric talent of the first order.他的早期作品显露了一流的抒情才华。

6 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

7 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

8 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

9 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

10 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

11 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

12 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。