VOA慢速英语2009年-THIS IS AMERICA - More US Parents Think Be

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:
　
Traditional baby names are not as popular as they used to be.

And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we talk about baby names in America.

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VOICE ONE:

Every year, more than four million babies are born in the United States.

Some parents name their children based on family, cultural or religious traditions. Girls are often named after a family member but rarely their mothers. Sons, though, are often named after their fathers.

VOICE TWO:

George Foreman, the former heavyweight boxing champ, has five sons and five daughters. All of his sons are named George: George Junior, George the third, George the fourth, George the fifth and George the sixth. Even two of his daughters have George in their name: Freeda George Foreman and Georgetta Foreman. OK, so this is an extreme example.

VOICE ONE:

So what are the most popular baby names in America? Every year the Social Security¹ Administration² releases³ a list. For boys, names from the Bible⁴ were again the leading choices last year.

VOICE TWO:

Jacob was the most popular boy name for the tenth year. Michael spent a tenth year at number two. Michael had been the number one name for thirty-eight years, from nineteen sixty-one to nineteen ninety-eight.

Ethan, Joshua and Daniel were also in the top five. Next came Alexander, Anthony, William, Christopher and Matthew.

VOICE ONE:

Last year Emma was the number one name for girls. Isabella was number two.

For twelve years the most popular name was Emily. But last year Emily fell to third, followed by Madison and Ava. The other names in the top ten were Olivia, Sophia, Abigail, Elizabeth and Chloe.

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VOICE TWO:

These days, the choice of a baby name seems to be guided as much by individual desires as by tradition. This is shown in the fact that the most popular baby names are not as popular as they used to be.

Researchers at San Diego State University in California did a study. They found that thirty-two percent of boys received one of the ten most popular names in nineteen fifty-five. The same was true for twenty-two percent of girls.

By two thousand seven, however, the numbers were down to less than ten percent of boys and only eight percent of girls.

VOICE ONE:

Cleveland Evans is an associate professor of psychology⁵ at Bellevue University in Nebraska. He is also an expert in onomastics -- the study of names and naming practices.

CLEVELAND EVANS: "People are more and more into finding⁶ unusual names. And now since we have the information on the Internet -- at least in the United States -- of what the most popular names are, the percentage of kids who get them actually is going down because people are able to avoid them much more successfully than they did before."

VOICE TWO:

To get a better sense of the modern name game, we stopped some families out on the National Mall here in Washington, D.C.

MOTHER: "Hailey is the oldest. With her we wanted one that wasn't too popular. And at the time we were living in New Mexico and we didn't know anybody that was Hailey. And this is my daughter Caitlin and with this one we just liked the name."

MOTHER: "She's Elizabeth, after Elizabeth Taylor. I think my husband was in love with her."

MOTHER: "This is Derek and I have another son, Dillon. I basically⁷ looked through baby books and just found names that I thought were a little bit different. We named both of our kids with Ds. My husband starts with a D and I'm a D. And they're both Ds, so ...

MOTHER: "Stephanie Rafaella. She's named after my sister-in-law."

MOTHER: "Well I always liked the name Sebastian, so I wanted to name our older son Sebastian. And Jonathan, to be honest, was kind of random⁸. But his middle name is Miles which is my mother's maiden⁹ name."

MOTHER: "Elizabeth is named after my grandmother. Daniel is named after Daniel in the Bible. And Zachary sounded wild and fun so we went with it."

VOICE ONE:

Some parents choose names that really set their children apart.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, named their daughter Apple. They chose it, they said, because the fruit is sweet and wholesome¹⁰. They chose a less unusual name for their son, Moses.

VOICE TWO:

Singer Ashley Simpson and her husband, singer Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, named their son Bronx Mowgli Wentz. Bronx, after the area in New York City; Mowgli, from a character in "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling.

VOICE ONE:

Some names can be used for either sex, like Sidney, Shawn, Alex and Taylor. Thirty years ago the name Taylor was much more likely to go to a boy than a girl. Today the opposite is true -- as evidenced by the young singer Taylor Swift¹¹.

Naming expert Cleveland Evans explains that many of these names were traditionally female¹² or male at one time or another.

CLEVELAND EVANS: "For a couple hundred years we've had names which have switched gender¹³ but they almost always switch from male to female. Leslie and Ashley are examples of that. Now they are overwhelmingly¹⁴ female even though they started out as male. There aren't very many examples of names which are equally popular for both boys and girls for a really long period."

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VOICE TWO:

Unisex names can, of course, make it difficult to know if someone is male or female. Alex can be short for Alexander or the female version¹⁵, Alexandra.

Charlie was last year's three hundred seventh most popular name for boys. But it also rose to the seven hundred thirty-sixth most popular name for girls.

VOICE ONE:

We met a woman on the National Mall whose nickname¹⁶ is Charlie. She was named after her father's only brother, who died a few years before she was born. She admits that her name has caused some problems.

WOMAN: "Actually my first name is Charles. When I was in the military they would always assume¹⁷ that somebody had mis-keyed the M versus¹⁸ the F [in personnel¹⁹ records] and would house me with a male roommate or such."

Sometimes a difference in spelling can identify whether the person with the name is male or female. This brings us to a question we received from China. A listener wanted to know if Billie Jean is considered a girl's name, or if it can be used as a boy's name.

You might remember Billie Jean King the women's tennis star. Of course "Billie Jean" is also one of Michael Jackson's best known songs. In fact, the question happened to arrive just a few days before the pop star died on June twenty-fifth.

Professor Evans had this advice for our listener.

CLEVELAND EVANS: "Well, that's one of those things that a little bit it depends on how you spell it. I would expect a male Billy Gene²⁰ to be B-I-L-L-Y G-E-N-E and a female Billie Jean would be B-I-L-L-I-E J-E-A-N."

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VOICE ONE:

Traditionally, married women in the United States have taken their husband's last name. But now more and more are keeping their own family name. Some add their husband's last name at the end. Some couples even create a totally new name. But what happens when children arrive?

In some cases the child takes the mother's surname²¹ as a middle name and the father's name as the family name. Other times, the child may take on both names as a family name. But, this can create problems in the future.

What happens when Emma Isabella Brown Smith meets Jacob Michael Williams Jones? You see how this might be an issue.

VOICE TWO:

Unlike some countries, the United States has no laws restricting²² what parents can name their children. And if adults decide they want another name, they can legally have it changed.

VOICE ONE:

Parents can find plenty of advice on the Web and in bookstores about choosing a baby name. A lot has also been written about the possible effects that a name might have on a child's future.

VOICE TWO:

There are studies that suggest children with unusual names are more likely to be teased²³. Other studies suggest that as adults, they might be less likely to get called for a job interview. Yet other research suggests that giving a child an unusual name might help build character.

What all this adds up to is a big responsibility for parents to consider what's really in a name. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Archives of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com We leave you with more of the names we found on the National Mall. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

WOMAN: "Tre is named after his father David Glenn. But he's a third so that's how his nickname is Tre. Kaylee, we liked that name. We adopted her and in the hospital they gave her a name of Cali which we didn't like but we wanted to keep close to that.

WOMAN: "Caroline was a name that we liked. We found it in a baby book. And then Michael we named after my husband's good friend and my father."

WOMAN: "Carla Marie. This is Ashley Lyn and William David. Carla was from a friend. William was from my husband's uncle and Ashley we just picked."

MAN: "My mother's was Virginia so we named after her and my wife Caty's middle name is Allison. So we took my mother's name and her name.

WOMAN: "He is a third so, and I didn't like Trip or Tre, so Tres had it. I always like the name Reagan and I'm kind of a Ronald Reagan fan, so, voila, here she came along. And this one, I was skiing out in Salt Lake City and the name of a building out there was Reid -- with R-E-I-D -- and it sounded good at the time."

1 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。

2 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

3 releases   

v.释放( release的第三人称单数 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• Nuclear fission releases tremendous amounts of energy. 核裂变释放出巨大的能量。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Zemel says that when calcium levels are low, the body releases a hormone that helps squeeze the most out of every available milligram of the mineral. 泽莫尔博士说，当人体中的钙含量偏低时，身体里就会产生一种荷尔蒙，它能帮助肌体最大限度地吸收所摄入的钙。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 bible   

n.《圣经》；得到权威支持的典籍

参考例句：

• According to the Bible we are all the seed of Adam.根据《圣经》所说的，我们都是亚当的后裔。
• This dictionary should be your Bible when studying English.学习英语时，这本字典应是你的主要参考书。

5 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

6 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

7 basically   

adv.基本上，从根本上说

参考例句：

• His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
• Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。

8 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

9 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

10 wholesome   

adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的

参考例句：

• In actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
• It is not wholesome to eat without washing your hands.不洗手吃饭是不卫生的。

11 swift   

n.雨燕，大滚筒；adj.迅速的，快的，敏捷的，立刻的；adv.迅速地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He is swift to hear,but slow to speak.他听力敏锐，但不善言辞。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery.他康复得相当快。

12 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

13 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

14 overwhelmingly   

adv.压倒性地；不可抵抗地

参考例句：

• They voted overwhelmingly against the proposal. 他们以压倒多数票否决了该提案。
• The local economy is overwhelmingly dependent on oil and gas extraction. 当地经济过于依赖石油和天然气的开采。

15 version   

n.版本；型号；叙述，说法

参考例句：

• His version of the events is pure supposition.他对这件事的说法纯属猜测。
• What is your version of this matter?你对这件事情的看法 怎么样？

16 nickname   

n.绰号，昵称；v.给...取绰号，叫错名字

参考例句：

• She called me by my nickname.她叫我的外号。
• Why do you fasten such a nickname on her?你为什么给她取这样一个绰号？

17 assume   

vt.假装；假定，设想；承担；呈现，采取

参考例句：

• I assume that he won't cheat you.想来他是不会骗你的。
• We can't assume anything in this case.在这种情况下我们不可能做出假设。

18 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

19 personnel   

n.[总称]人员，员工，人事部门

参考例句：

• The personnel are not happy to change these rules.全体工作人员对改变这些规定很不高兴。
• Personnel has lost my tax forms.人事部门把我的税收表格给弄丢了。

20 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

21 surname   

n.姓；vt.冠姓

参考例句：

• Her first name is Sheila and her surname is Kane.她姓凯恩，名叫希拉。
• Wang is a very common Chinese surname.王是一个很常见的中国姓。

22 restricting   

v.（以法规）限制( restrict的现在分词 )；约束；束缚

参考例句：

• laws restricting immigration into the US 美国限制外来移民的法律
• She argued for import control, ie the restricting of imports. 她主张实行进口限制。 来自辞典例句

23 teased   

v.取笑，戏弄( tease的过去式和过去分词 )；梳理（羊毛等）

参考例句：

• He took a screwdriver and teased out the remaining screws. 他拿出螺丝刀把其余的螺丝卸了下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt annoyance at being teased. 我恼恨别人取笑我。 来自《简明英汉词典》