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Baby Names
孩子起名学问大
Few decisions are more personal than the naming of offspring.
给自己的孩子取名完全是个人私事，
Yet laws regulating the choice of both first names and surnames are common around the world.
但世界上对孩子取名有所限制的国家还真不少。
Denmark expects new parents to choose from a register of acceptable names;Portugal lists banned and approved ones.
丹麦希望父母给孩子取名在可接受的范围之内；葡萄牙明确规定了哪些名字禁止使用和允许使用。
In Iceland a committee of language specialists must rule on any unusual name.
在冰岛，任何不合常规的名字都必须经过一个语言专家小组的审核。
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.
德国登记官禁止用常用物名和地名给孩子取名，也不喜欢性别不甚明了的名字，比如基姆。
Experts at a German-language society run a helpline offering advice to puzzled parents.
德语专家开通了收费的热线电话来给不明就里的父母提供帮助。
Governments argue that these rules prevent children being saddled with preposterous names that may cause them problems in later life.
政府称如此是为了使孩子免受滑稽名字之累，比如Sinbin，这样的名字会给他们未来的生活带来麻烦。
They also aim to block names that might cause offence to others.
他们也会驳回容易引起他人反感的名字，比如耶稣滚蛋。
Even where registrars have no power of prohibition,worrisome choices can be referred to judges or to child-protection agencies.
即使在登记官职责范围之外，只要取名有可能引起麻烦，也会被提交评审机构或是儿童保护组织。
In 2009 a couple in New Jersey lost custody of a boy they had named Adolf Hitler.
2009年新泽西的一对夫妇丧失了一名男孩的监护权，因为他们给他起名为阿道夫?希特勒。
Less noble concerns play a role, too.
即使不算鹤立鸡群，但出类拔萃的名字也有麻烦。
First names that imitate lofty titles remain the most frequently disallowed in New Zealand.
寓意高贵的名字在新西兰被频频驳回，
Registrars often frustrate enterprising parents trying to name their infants Justice, King, Prince,Baron and Duke.
登记官常给激情满怀的父母泼冷水，他们给孩子的取名包括法官、国王、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.
乌普萨拉大学的Staffan Nystrm说，在瑞典，曾有严格法律禁止人们造出一些模仿现有姓氏的新姓氏，
Requests to change a last name must still pass through the patent office there.
就算现在，更改姓氏也仍需经过专门委员会的同意。
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.
在意大利这样的父权占主导地位的国家，不可以让孩子从母姓，从父母双姓也不可以。
Over time, the rules have eased.
随着时间的推移，取名限制开始放松。
France scrapped its saint-strewn list of acceptable names in 1993.
法国1993年取消了他们的取名可用权威名单，
Two years later Iceland stopped requiring immigrants to adopt local names.
两年后冰岛不再要求移民取当地名字。
The new constraint is technological, not bureaucratic.
新的限制抛弃了传统思维而考虑了技术因素。
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.
政府的数据库深受冗长名字之苦：新西兰规定人名不能超过100个字母，马萨诸塞州只允许使用40个。
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.
中国更是苦恼：汉字数以万计，使用古汉字和稀有汉字的名字会给计算机输入带来很大麻烦。
Japanese parents with a penchant for the arcane face similar difficulties.
对神秘字符有特殊嗜好的日本父母面临着同样的困难。
