The name's '@' to you...

A complete off-beat news that caught my eye is that of some parents that want to name their child '@'. Yes they want to name their kid a symbol, we have had a few people here that named their kids drinks like 'brandi' and even a fruit like 'apple'. So for this family to want that as a name does not surprise me at all.

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@," claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday.

The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.

"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.

While the "@" symbol is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta," or "love him," to Mandarin speakers.

Well let's hope that the child doesn't find a mate that is of strong Manderin decent or else the name will be quite confusing at times.
:)