What's in a Name? (Reading)

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What's in a Name?

Recently, a couple in New Zealand was not allowed to name their baby son 4Real. Eventhough New Zealand has quite liberal rules about naming children, names beginning with a number are not allowed. They decided to call him Supermanistead.

In many countries around the world, unsual names for children are becoming more popular, especially since the increasing fashion for celebrities to give their children silly names. In Britain, you can call a child almost anything you like - the only restrictions on parents relate to offensive words. Some parents choose names which come from popular culture. For example, there have been six boys named Gandalf after the character in the Lord of the Rings novels and films. Equally, names relating to sport are fairly common - since 1984, 36 children have been called Arsenal after the football team.

Other countries have much stricter rules about how parents should name their children. Countries including Japan, Denmark, Germany and Argentina have an approved list of names from which parents must choose. In China, there are some rules about what you may call  a child - no foreign letters or symbols are allowed. As a result, just a year ago, a couple could not name their baby son @. In Britain, some names which were previously considered old-fashioned have become more popular again, such as Maisieor Ella for a girl, or Alfieor Noah for a boy. But the most popular names are not the silly ones. The top names are fairly traditional - Jack, Charlie and Thomas for boys and Grace, Ruby and Jessica for girls.


1. Are the following statements True or False? Copy the evidence from the text.
  • There are no rules about what you can name your child in the UK.
  • Some children in the UK now have names of fictional characters.

2. In your own words and based on the ideas in the text, answer the following questions. Do not copy from the text.
  • What was the New Zealand couple's problems and how did they solve it?
  • Explain at least three different regulations on naming children mentioned in the text.

3. Find the words in the text that mean:
  • trend (paragraph 2)
  • select (paragraph 2)
  • in the same way (paragraph 2)
  • like (paragraoh 4)

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