Planning on naming your baby Jacob or Emily? Be forewarned, those two names topped the US most popular list again last year — Emily for the 11th year running.
The 2007 top baby names list released by the US Social Security Administration for Mother’s Day showed Americans consistent in their love for classical names: Michael, Ethan, Joshua and Daniel topped out the top five on the boys side, while Isabella, Emma, Ava and Madison were favorites for girls.
But the list showed that plenty were striving to be unique, creating wholly new names like Nevaeh — “heaven” spelled backwards — or sometimes just taking extreme orthographical liberty with better-known monikers.
PHOTO: AP
“For reasons likely to puzzle baby name experts around the world, American parents have become infatuated by names, particularly for their sons, that rhyme with the word ‘maiden,’” the SSA said.
It counted 34 such names in the top 1,000 for boys, including homonymic variations Jayden, Jaden, Jaiden, Jaydon, Jadon, Jaeden, Jadyn, Jaydin, Jaidyn and Jaydan.
Despite the freewheeling spellings, spokesman Mark Lassiter said the SSA “would resist any legislative efforts to standardize the spelling of names,” according to an agency statement.
Aside from variants on “heaven,” the SSA pointed to the popularity of philosophical ideals for girls’ names: Destiny (No. 41), Trinity (No. 72), Serenity (No. 126), Harmony (No. 315) and Miracle (No. 461).
Fast-rising names included Danica, now at No. 307, for top female race car driver Danica Patrick, and JaMarcus, No. 743, for football star JaMarcus Russell.(AFP)
想幫小孩取名為雅各或艾蜜莉嗎?先提醒您,這兩個名字去年再度衛冕全美最受歡迎的名字,而且艾蜜莉已經蟬連十一年冠軍了。
美國社會安全局為迎接母親節公佈了二OO七年嬰兒命名排行榜,結果顯示美國民眾對經典名字的偏好不變,其中排名前五名的男孩名字還包括:麥克、伊森、約書亞和丹尼爾,而伊莎貝拉、艾瑪、艾娃和麥德森也是最受喜愛的女孩名字。
但排行榜也顯示,很多人想給孩子取個特別的名字,他們自創了一些新名字,像是「Nevaeh」(「Heaven(天堂)」的倒寫);有些則是隨意拼寫大家耳熟能詳的名字。
社會安全局表示:「美國的父母為兒子取名時,尤其喜歡和「maiden」押同韻,這讓全世界的嬰兒命名師感到不解。」
在前一千個最受歡迎的男孩名中,就有三十四個這類同音不同拼法的名字,包括「Jayden」、「Jaden」、「Jaiden」、「Jaydon」、「Jadon」、「Jaeden」、「Jadyn」、「Jaydin」、「Jaidyn」和「Jaydan」。
儘管有這些隨性的拼法,社會安全局發言人馬克.萊錫特在一份聲明中表示,局方「不希望政府立法將姓名拼法標準化」。
除了各種「天堂」的變型名字外,社會安全局也指出一些有哲學意涵的女生名字,如:排名四十一的黛絲特妮(天意)、排名七十二的崔娜蒂(三位一體)、排名一百二十六的薩瑞娜蒂(安詳)、排名三百一十五的哈孟妮(和諧),以及排名四百六十一的米芮蔻(奇蹟)。
排名迅速竄升的名字包括三百零七名的丹妮卡,其名人代表為頂尖女賽車手丹妮卡.派翠克,還有排名七百四十三的賈馬克思,其名人代表為足球明星賈馬克思.羅素。(法新社�翻譯:袁星塵)
Like people in many other countries, Taiwanese are fond of delicious fried snacks. For example, Spain is known for its churros, and in Taiwan there is a traditional fried dessert made of sticky rice called beh teung guai. The snack consists of sticky rice flour that is mixed with water, kneaded into a dough and shaped into small pieces. Once fried, the sticky rice balls are coated in crushed peanuts and sugar mixture. 世界上有許多國家愛吃炸甜點,台灣也不例外。舉例來說,西班牙有吉拿棒,台灣人則有油炸糯米的點心──白糖粿。作法先將糯米粉和水混合揉成糰,再捏成小塊,炸好後裹上花生糖粉。 knead (v.) 揉(麵糰、黏土),捏;捏製;揉捏形成 Beh teung guai is a traditional snack that has been enjoyed by many senior citizens since
WHEN ARE THE OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES? The Paris 2024 Olympics will run from Friday to Aug. 11, while the Paris 2024 Paralympics will be held from Aug. 28-Sept. 8. WHERE WILL THE GAMES TAKE PLACE? In September 2017, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded Paris the 2024 Games when its only remaining rival, Los Angeles, agreed to wait another four years to be the host city. Paris has hosted two Olympics and will stage the event 100 years after its last Games in 1924. The Games will be staged in 35 venues across Paris, Ile-de-France, on both mainland France and overseas. Some notable venues
A: The 2024 Paris Olympics is set to open tomorrow (Saturday Taiwan time), and will run until Aug. 11. B: How many Taiwanese athletes will compete in the Olympics? A: About 60 Taiwanese athletes will participate in 16 sports. B: I’ve heard some Olympic gold medalists, such as weightlifter Kuo Hsing-chun, and badminton duo Lee Yang and Wang Chi-lin, will compete in the Olympics again. A: Asian tennis star Hsieh Su-wei, who is the World No. 1 in women’s doubles, is also on the Taiwan team. Let’s give our support to the Taiwanese players. A: 巴黎奧運自7月26日(台灣時間27日),至8月11日要登場啦。 B: 台灣有多少選手參賽? A: 台灣有60名選手參賽,將參加16項運動種類。 B: 這次奧運金牌舉重名將郭婞淳、羽球男雙李洋/王齊麟都會參賽。 A:
You might have seen athletes gracefully bending and leaping in rhythm with melodies. This is “rhythmic gymnastics,” a sport often mistaken for artistic gymnastics. However, the two are distinct in focus and presentation. Artistic gymnastics focuses on strength, flexibility, and balance, with athletes performing solo on various equipment. They are scored based on the difficulty of their movements, their execution of certain skills on each apparatus, and their ability to combine multiple skills into different movements. Rhythmic gymnastics, on the other hand, emphasizes style and presentation, with athletes often performing in teams. Moving in harmony with music, they use