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Baby Names
孩子起名學問大
Few decisions are more personal than the naming of offspring.
給自己的孩子取名完全是個人私事，
Yet laws regulating the choice of both first names and surnames are common around the world.
但世界上對孩子取名有所限制的國家還真不少。
Denmark expects new parents to choose from a register of acceptable names;Portugal lists banned and approved ones.
丹麥希望父母給孩子取名在可接受的范圍之內；葡萄牙明確規定了哪些名字禁止使用和允許使用。
In Iceland a committee of language specialists must rule on any unusual name.
在冰島，任何不合常規的名字都必須經過一個語言專家小組的審核。
German registrars prohibit the use of most nouns and place-names,and also frown upon any that do not clearly imply a gender:bad luck, Kim.
德國登記官禁止用常用物名和地名給孩子取名，也不喜歡性別不甚明了的名字，比如基姆。
Experts at a German-language society run a helpline offering advice to puzzled parents.
德語專家開通了收費的熱線電話來給不明就里的父母提供幫助。
Governments argue that these rules prevent children being saddled with preposterous names that may cause them problems in later life.
政府稱如此是為了使孩子免受滑稽名字之累，比如Sinbin，這樣的名字會給他們未來的生活帶來麻煩。
They also aim to block names that might cause offence to others.
他們也會駁回容易引起他人反感的名字，比如耶穌滾蛋。
Even where registrars have no power of prohibition,worrisome choices can be referred to judges or to child-protection agencies.
即使在登記官職責范圍之外，只要取名有可能引起麻煩，也會被提交評審機構或是兒童保護組織。
In 2009 a couple in New Jersey lost custody of a boy they had named Adolf Hitler.
2009年新澤西的一對夫婦喪失了一名男孩的監護權，因為他們給他起名為阿道夫?希特勒。
Less noble concerns play a role, too.
即使不算鶴立雞群，但出類拔萃的名字也有麻煩。
First names that imitate lofty titles remain the most frequently disallowed in New Zealand.
寓意高貴的名字在新西蘭被頻頻駁回，
Registrars often frustrate enterprising parents trying to name their infants Justice, King, Prince,Baron and Duke.
登記官常給激情滿懷的父母潑冷水，他們給孩子的取名包括法官、國王、王子、男爵、公爵。
Strict laws in Sweden once aimed to stop people creating family names that imitated those already in use,says Staffan Nystrm at Uppsala University.
烏普薩拉大學的Staffan Nystrm說，在瑞典，曾有嚴格法律禁止人們造出一些模仿現有姓氏的新姓氏，
Requests to change a last name must still pass through the patent office there.
就算現在，更改姓氏也仍需經過專門委員會的同意。
Patriarchy remains entrenched in countries like Italy that refuse to allow married women to pass their maiden names on to their children,even in a double-barrelled surname.
在意大利這樣的父權占主導地位的國家，不可以讓孩子從母姓，從父母雙姓也不可以。
Over time, the rules have eased.
隨著時間的推移，取名限制開始放松。
France scrapped its saint-strewn list of acceptable names in 1993.
法國1993年取消了他們的取名可用權威名單，
Two years later Iceland stopped requiring immigrants to adopt local names.
兩年后冰島不再要求移民取當地名字。
The new constraint is technological, not bureaucratic.
新的限制拋棄了傳統思維而考慮了技術因素。
Government databases may struggle with long names:New Zealand allows 100 characters for all first names;the state of Massachusetts has a limit of 40 for each.
政府的數據庫深受冗長名字之苦：新西蘭規定人名不能超過100個字母，馬薩諸塞州只允許使用40個。
Chinese face a particular difficulty:their language has tens of thousands of characters,but a name that uses archaic or rare ones can mean computer problems.
中國更是苦惱：漢字數以萬計，使用古漢字和稀有漢字的名字會給計算機輸入帶來很大麻煩。
Japanese parents with a penchant for the arcane face similar difficulties.
對神秘字符有特殊嗜好的日本父母面臨著同樣的困難。
