世界節(jié)假日博覽 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.

　　喜歡你的名字嗎?有沒(méi)有想過(guò)改個(gè)名字?你可以在更名日這一天嘗試一下。這一天會(huì)在每年的2月13日舉辦。因?yàn)檫@一天恰好是www.wellcat.com網(wǎng)站創(chuàng)辦的日子。他們說(shuō)這一天是為了“上百萬(wàn)討厭自己本名的人創(chuàng)立的。在這一天，我們可以隨心所欲改名字，我們也希望同事、家人和朋友能夠用新名字來(lái)稱呼你。”他們明白。我們沒(méi)有選擇名字的機(jī)會(huì)。我們的父母幫我們做了決定。或許，如果可以的話，絕大部分人都會(huì)改名字。困難的是，如果我們不喜歡自己的名字，我們?yōu)槭裁催€要與它一同成長(zhǎng)呢。但這不是世界末日，我們也可以通過(guò)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?

　　絕大部分人都有名，還有些人擁有中間名。對(duì)名影響最大的因素恐怕是家庭傳統(tǒng)了。父母希望我們以摯愛(ài)的阿姨或是祖父母的名字命名。還有一些因素與流行文化有關(guān)。如今，世界上有許多布拉德和凱利，這都要拜演員布拉德·皮特和歌手凱莉·米洛所賜。許多人真的改了名字。但是原因是多種多樣的。演員希望擁有一個(gè)響亮的名字;變更信仰的人通常也會(huì)更改名字;進(jìn)入到證人保護(hù)項(xiàng)目中的人也會(huì)出于安全考慮改名字。美國(guó)演員洛·瑪羅管他的女兒叫“Tu”。如果你將成為下一個(gè)“Tu”，你愿意改名字嗎?

本篇內(nèi)容翻譯來(lái)自可可英語(yǔ)網(wǎng)。