What’s in an unusual name? More than you might think 罕見名字有啥玄機？出乎你意料

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might have thought twice about naming their daughter Suri if they’d known that it means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian.

湯姆．克魯斯與凱蒂．荷姆絲也許會重新考慮是否要把女兒命名為「蘇莉」，倘若他們知道這個字在日文中意指「扒手」、在法文中意指「惡化」，以及在義大利文意指「?魚」。

Today Translations, a London-based translation company, is offering parents-to-be -- particularly celebrities -- the chance to check the meaning of prospective baby names in other languages.

總部設在倫敦的翻譯公司「今日翻譯」，如今提供即將為人父母者──特別是名流──查詢即將誕生的小寶寶的名字在其他語言中的意思的機會。

For 1,000 pounds, the company’s linguists will carry out a "basic name translation audit" of names, checking their meaning in 100 languages, or more for an additional cost.

只要出得起1千英鎊，該公司的語言學家就會對名字進行「基本的名字翻譯審查」，查核名字在100種語言中的意義，額外付費還可以查詢更多種語言。

While open to everyone, the firm said it expects the service to attract celebrity clients who are known for giving their babies unusual names.

儘管（該服務）對所有人開放，該公司表示，預料這項服務將吸引向來以幫小孩取罕見名字聞名的名流客戶。

Among other baby names the company could have warned about in advance are Kai Rooney, the newborn son of English soccer player Wayne Rooney, whose name means "probably" in Finnish, "pier" in Estonian, and "stop it" in the west African language of Yoruba.

在該公司可以事先警告進而避免的嬰兒名字中，英國足球員韋恩．魯尼剛出生的兒子凱伊．魯尼名列其一。這個名字在芬蘭文意指「可能」，在愛沙尼亞文意指「碼頭」，在西非優魯巴語意指「停住」。

新聞辭典

think twice：片語，重新考慮，三思。例句：You should think twice before spending all that money on clothes.（你應該重新考慮是否要把錢全花在衣服上。）

turn/go sour ：片語，惡化，變壞。例句：It looks like all my plans are going sour.（看來我所有的計畫都砸鍋了。）

to-be：形容詞，即將成為…，前面多接名詞形成複合名詞，如bride-to-be，待嫁新娘，mother-to-be，準媽媽，孕婦。