When Chinese English-learners ponder the choice of a Western name for themselves, the first thing they normally want to know is what each possible name means. Oddly, of all the factors governing the selection of names in the West, meaning is probably the least important. This curiosity is exercised mainly by Westerners interested in knowing what their name happens to signify, and much less by parents seeking a good name for a child. 當中國的英語愛好者考慮給自己起個英文名字時，他們首先想知道的就是那些可選的名字所代表的意義。但是挺怪的是，在西方，在選擇名字時要考慮的諸多因素中，意義恐怕是最不重要的一點。只是那些對自己名字的意義感興趣的西方人才有探究的好奇心，而父母在給孩子 起名時則很少考慮名字的意義。 The factors that weigh most heavily in the choice of a name are sound, fashion, mental associations and family habit. Sound is preeminent: Nobody wants to impose a clumsy-sounding name on a child. Thus parents seek personal names that go well with the child's surname, making a euphonious whole. This involves not only consideration of the full form of the personal name, but also of the likely nickname. After all, that is the name the child will hear most frequently in casual modern American life, often to the virtual exclusion at the official full form. 西方人起名時最重要的考慮因素是發(fā)音、時尚、聯(lián)和和家庭習慣。發(fā)音是最重要的：沒有人想給孩子起個拗口的名字。于是家長就會挑個與姓搭救得很好，整體聽起來很悅耳的名字，這不僅在起全名時這樣考慮，起愛稱時也是如此。畢竟，愛稱是孩子在現(xiàn)代美國生活非正式場合中最經(jīng)常聽到的，而正式的全稱幾乎根本聽不到。 In 在美國，時尚也特別重要。人們給孩子起的一些基本名字多少個世紀以來相當穩(wěn)定，但在最迫幾十年，有些名字突然出現(xiàn)了，令人吃驚地普及開來，而短短幾年以后，又幾乎完全不用了。當前流行的幾個名字，比如，布蘭登是男孩名，阿詩麗是女孩名----這些名字非常流行，但在美國歷史上并沒有用過。這類曇花一現(xiàn)的名字往往來自好萊塢或是無聊的每日肥皂劇，很多美國人一天天跟著看。金伯麗、蒂芬妮、布麗特妮、梅根、海瑟爾、凱拉這類時髦的新的女孩名字被廣泛地認為很好聽，雖說有些人，顯然是數(shù)數(shù)人，認為這些名字事雖小，但卻是令人擔心的一個例證：電視和電影對現(xiàn)代美國人的沖擊有多深。有趣的是，男孩的這類名字要少得多。 The associations a name has in the mind of parents are also of capital importance. A certain name may call up an image of a beloved or loathed relative or public figure. The name Adolf or Adolph, fairly common among Roman Catholic German-and French-Americans early in this century, disappeared from birth certificates after the 1930s. Bernard, though the name of a great saint, makes poorly educated Americans think of a breed of large dog. Such associations are especially influential in defining the popularity of boys' names. Quite a few frequently encountered male names evoke a positive masculine image. The name Matthew, and even more its nickname Matt, for instance, suggest a trustworthy, responsible, honest man. 名字在父母心中所具有的聯(lián)想在起名時也很重要。某個名字可能會讓你想起一個所愛的或討厭的親友或是一個公眾人物。在本世紀初，阿道夫這個名字在信奉天主教的德國人和法裔美國人中用得相當普遍，但在30年代后， 這個名字就從出征證上消失了（阿道夫是希特勒的名）。伯納德，這個名字雖然是一個偉大的圣徒的名字，但是文化不高的美國人會由此想到某一品種的大狗，這類的聯(lián)想在決定男孩的名字是否受歡迎時特別重要。不少經(jīng)常見到的男性名字能喚起正面的男性形象。比如，馬修這個名字，及至其愛稱馬特，會讓你想起值得信任的、負責任的、誠實的男人。 How names acquire these associations is a complicated subject. It is notable that in America, where upper middle-class status is largely dependent on professional education, doctors, lawyers, engineers and other middle-class types favor names for their children, especially their sons, that have a dignity based on centuries of use. Such people tend to eschew suddenly popular names drawn from the world of entertainment. Thus the name one bears can sometimes reflect social class, which in turn reflects education. Although religious associations can certainly play a role in the choice of a name, they are more important in establishing the basic list from which names are drawn. Parents who name their son, say, Michael may be thinking of the fiery archangel who appears in hundreds of glorious works of art, but it is more probable that they are remembering a friend or favorite relative whom they hope their offspring will resemble in character; or they may feel that Michael (or Mike) has the proper tone, or that it goes well with their surname. 名字是如何具有了這類聯(lián)想是個復雜的問題。值得注意的是，在美國這個上層中產(chǎn)階級的地位天很大程度上取決于所受的專業(yè)性教育的國家，醫(yī)生、律師、工程師及其他中產(chǎn)階級的人喜歡孩子的名字（尤其是男孩的名字）具有因使用了幾個世紀而帶來的一種尊嚴。這些人往往會避開那些娛樂圈里突然出現(xiàn)的名字。因此，一個人的名字有時會反映出一個人的社會地位，也反映出所受教育的程度。 雖然宗教的聯(lián)系在起名字時肯定起著作用，但宗教在建立起名之源的基本名字系列時則更重要。比如，父母給予孩子起名邁克爾，也許是想到了曾出在幾百種文藝作品中的火光閃閃 的天使長，但更大的可能性則是家長要紀念一個朋友或最喜愛的親友，希望自己的后代在性格上與他們相像；也許他們是覺得邁克爾（或邁克）叫著好聽，或者是這個名字與姓搭配起來很好。 Finally, family habit may determine the choice of a name. In many countries, and in many American families, new parents are urged to name their children after older relatives. The patterns differ: nephews can be named for uncles, sons for fathers, grandsons for grandfathers, etc. One effect of this is severely to restrict the number of names that occur in a given family, and occasionally to produce many people with the same name. Fortunately the use of middle names tends to mitigate this tendency-often it is just one of the two personal names that is borrowed from a relative. In any case, many families are proud of these repeated names. In 最后，家庭習慣也會決定名字的起法。在很多國家以及很多美國家庭，新父母受到敦促，要以老輩親友的名字給孩子起名，其類型各異：侄子可以用叔叔的名字，兒子可用父親的名字，孫子可用祖父的名字，等等。這種作法所帶的結(jié)果之一就是嚴格限制了某一家族名字的數(shù)量，有時會出現(xiàn)很多人名字相同的現(xiàn)象。所幸的是，中間名的使用往往會減弱這一趨勢----通常只借用一個親友的第一名與中間名中的一個，家長還需給孩子 起一個新名。不管怎么說，很多家言族以這些重復使用的名字而自豪。在美國，以父親的名字給孩子起名，在社會各個階層都很普遍，但最多的是在上層社會，人們會看到相同的名字從父親傳到兒子連傳三代、四代以至更多代。這些人必須在名字后面加上“老”、“小”或用羅馬數(shù)字II、III、IV，加以區(qū)別，就像歐洲皇室一樣。
