As if it weren't strange enough that parents-to-be were basing naming decisions on Googleability and domain name availability, a Chinese couple had to take it just a little bit farther. The San Francisco Chronicle reported an article on the kookie couple's desire to, quite literally, name their baby "@", spelled just like that.
"A Chinese couple seeking a distinctive name for their child settled on the e-mail 'at' symbol — annoying government officials grappling with an influx of unorthodox names.
"The unidentified couple were cited Thursday by a government official as an example of citizens bringing bizarre names into the Chinese language. Written Chinese does not use an alphabet but is comprised of characters, sometimes making it difficult to develop words for new or foreign objects and ideas."
They had good intentions -- In Chinese, the letters 'a' and 't' sound like words for "love him." It's still unknown if the parents were successful at dubbing their little one 'at.' Stay tuned!
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Unconventional Baby Naming
- Opportunity to create new baby naming services that cater to unconventional and unique naming preferences.
- Symbolic Baby Naming
- Opportunity to combine symbols, letters or characters with traditional names for more meaningful and personalized baby names.
- Non-alphabetical Baby Naming
- Opportunity to create new naming conventions that focus on using non-alphabetical characters, numbers, and symbols to create unique baby names.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Parenting
- Opportunity to develop innovative products and services that cater to the growing trend of unconventional baby naming.
- Language Learning
- Opportunity to develop language learning tools and services that teach non-alphabetic languages like Chinese or Arabic and enable people to create new words and names.
- Marketing
- Opportunity to create marketing campaigns and advertising materials that incorporate unconventional and unique baby names to attract millennial parents.
