Ground Report

Chinese couples have been known for a long time to be giving weird names to their newly born children. Names have even been taken from major corporates like Ford. The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China – it has become an important part of the national consciousness that nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event, a Chinese newspaper reported Sunday. Most of the 3,491 people with the name "Aoyun," meaning Olympics, were born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer Games, the Beijing Daily reported. Names related to Olympics have also become popular.  More than 4,000 Chinese share their names with the Beijing Games mascots, the "Five Friendlies."The names are Bei Bei (880 people), Jing Jing (1,240), Huan Huan (1,063), Ying Ying (624) and Ni Ni (642). When put together, the phrase translates to "Beijing welcomes you!". Chinese have increasingly turned to unique names as a way to express a child’s individuality. The Chinese have even resorted to usage of symbols like @ and alpha-numeric codes like A1 as names for their children.