290,798 Chinese can't be wrong!

[CliftonBazaar]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23852628-13762,00.html
Found this while going through the morning news - the last sentence is the one that makes me laugh
"Apparently there are 290,798 children called Civilisation in China."

 

[Gustavus]

Yeah, I've read articles about the chinese calling their children "@" or "&" because supposedly there are millions of people named the exact same thing (Zhang, Chang, Lou - you get the idea). I suppose this is just another outlet... The government, I read, isn't reacting too well though. On a side note, anyone having a kid he/ she wants to name civilization? (or, if you live in a linguistically non-barbaric region, "civilisation")

 

[Good Omens]

Those poor, poor children. Of course, when you're dealing with a country with 1.3 billion people, you probably have 300,000 called anything.

 

[ozangumus]

By the way these people really like turn based strategies especially Civilization series. It is not very important how they call.

 

[CivLuvah]

Wow. Do those children have Civilization IV? Maybe next year there will be 5,000 children named "CFC" China can be a crazy country.

 

[AbbieRevo]

I'm gonna name my baby Big Fat Cross

 

[holiday_hawk]

Think about how much that has to suck in school, not only are they already crammed into an overcrowded school but out of the class of like 60 or however many are in it there are only 4 different names in that room

 

[SharpMango]

I bet you anything there is some poor chinese kid in guangdong province or something named 'Civilization Fo'

 

[mystikmind2005]

I would guarrantee that as a percentage of population, the number of crazy names in China would pale in comparison to America!

 

[bestbrian]

Anything is better than the generic "Ashley", "Emily", "Michael", et al. Have some originality people. Just nothing's that a) going to get your kid beat up, or b) sound like a stripper.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I'd rather be known as 'Civ' than yet another generic name.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Heh, Civilization IV (the fourth).

@Civ4luva2484 CFC = cloro-floro-carbon?

 

[Chinese American]

Chinese use words that have meanings that most people understand. Rather than archaic or fancy names that you need to look up in a book of baby names to know their original meanings. OTOH, a Chinese dictionary will do. Nevertheless, most common names have direct meanings like strong, smart, beauty, etc.

'Civilization' also means literacy, writing. Because apparently, parents in China want their kids to do well in school. Considering that they are the remaining major contiguous, ancient civilization left, they have truly passed the test of time. So how can anyone criticize (with much ignorance) that a culture is so hung up on naming their children after the concept of literacy and civilized advancement?

Think about how much that has to suck in school, not only are they already crammed into an overcrowded school but out of the class of like 60 or however many are in it there are only 4 different names in that room

Probably as much the Jacobs and Michaels and Davids and Johns (or their variants in other languages) in classrooms elsewhere.

 

[Maniac]

Wènhuá?

On another note, apparently there are also people with Skywalker (Tianzou) as their first name. How's that for coolness?

 

[allunderheaven]

Or is it Wenming? I think Civilization in Chinese would be wenming or something like that

 

[Kazbar]

Probably as much the Jacobs and Michaels and Davids and Johns (or their variants in other languages) in classrooms elsewhere.

I really haven't ever seen more than two people of the same name in a standard American classroom. The larger the group, the more of them, of course, but that applies to this topic's situation then, doesn't it?

 

[stee]

Maybe some parents will be smart and start to name their kids civ 5 ahead of time

 

[brades]

You think thats bad, I read the other day on BBC news that more than 4000 recently born Chinese are named "Olympic Games".

 

[Feanor01]

Bestbrian, You evidently have never named a baby! Trying to find a name you and your partner both like (and the grandparents), trying to find a spelling the person at the bank and DMV can spell without trouble, trying to make it original but still fresh (Gretchine is more original, but not fresh), trying to find a name without too many bad nicknames! Trying to find a saints name if you are Roman Catholic or another name that reflects your spiritual or cultural heritage. It is almost impossible. We settled for Olivia, simply because I love the name Olive Oil (and St. Olive of course)! Then we found out it was the 7th most popular girls name the year my daughter was born. Oh well, you win some you lose some.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

A large percentage of the US only uses a tiny portion of available first names anyway. How many Johns are there, for crying out loud?

I think they are referring to "wen ming". In noun form it means "civilization". But is extremely unlikely. In this case, "wen" is probably the generation character, simply meaning "civil", "gentle" or "scholarly", while ming is "bright", "clear" or "enlightened", usually meaning smart and with spirit.

In a common Chinese naming system, the two characters are each one character of a "word", as most nouns are 2 or 3 characters long. In the traditional naming convention, all the male or female siblings of a nuclear family share one common character, denoting the generation, and then the second character the individual name. Both characters together is the complete "first name" in English. Often the mainlanders only go with one character though (hmm... how many siblings would they have anyway?).

As for the "290,798" number, you'd be surprised how accurate that number is, at least according to when the number was taken. The Chinese keep a meticulous record of all births and deaths, as well as the whereabouts of everyone, surpassing even the West, due to the government structure and a long history of the census that can handily put the Romans to shame. The death and injury tolls of the Szechuan earthquakes are accurate to a (hu)man once things are settle, give or take several dozen at most.