世界节假日博览 第26期:更名日

 　　Do you like your name? Have you ever thought about changing it? Well, on Get A Different Name Day you can. This special day always falls on February 13th. It is the creation of the website www.wellcat.com. They say the day is: “For the pity of millions of us who hate our birth names. On this day we may change our names to whatever we wish and have the right to expect colleagues, family and friends to so address us.” They have a point. We did not choose our names. Our parents made that decision. Maybe most of us would change our name if we could. The trouble is, if we don’t like our name, we are stuck with it for many years as we grow up. But all is not lost. You can have it legally changed.

　　喜欢你的名字吗？有没有想过改个名字？你可以在更名日这一天尝试一下。这一天会在每年的2月13日举办。因为这一天恰好是www.wellcat.com网站创办的日子。他们说这一天是为了“上百万讨厌自己本名的人创立的。在这一天，我们可以随心所欲改名字，我们也希望同事、家人和朋友能够用新名字来称呼你。”他们明白。我们没有选择名字的机会。我们的父母帮我们做了决定。或许，如果可以的话，绝大部分人都会改名字。困难的是，如果我们不喜欢自己的名字，我们为什么还要与它一同成长呢。但这不是世界末日，我们也可以通过合法手段更改名字。

　　Most of us have a given name and some of us have a middle name. One of the biggest influences on our given names is family tradition. Our parents wanted to name us after a fondly-remembered aunt or a grandparent. Another huge influence is popular culture. There are a lot more Brads and Kylies in the world today because of the actor Brad Pitt and singer Kylie Minogue. Lots of people do change their name. There are many reasons for this. Actors want a better-sounding name; people who change religions also commonly change names; people who enter witness protection programmes change their names for security reasons. American actor Rob Morrow called his daughter Tu. Would you change your name if you were Tu Morrow?

　　绝大部分人都有名，还有些人拥有中间名。对名影响最大的因素恐怕是家庭传统了。父母希望我们以挚爱的阿姨或是祖父母的名字命名。还有一些因素与流行文化有关。如今，世界上有许多布拉德和凯利，这都要拜演员布拉德·皮特和歌手凯莉·米洛所赐。许多人真的改了名字。但是原因是多种多样的。演员希望拥有一个响亮的名字；变更信仰的人通常也会更改名字；进入到证人保护项目中的人也会出于安全考虑改名字。美国演员洛·玛罗管他的女儿叫“Tu”。如果你将成为下一个“Tu”，你愿意改名字吗？