| A | 老公，孩子的名字我们自己起吧。不要让你妈算什么生辰八字，又迷信又难听。 |
| lǎogōng, háizi de míngzi wǒmén zìjǐ qǐ ba. bù yào ràng nǐ mā suàn shénme shēngchénbāzì, yòu míxìn yòu nántīng. |
| Darling, let's think of a name for the baby by ourselves. Let's not have your mom look at the eight characters that express the baby's birth. It's superstitious, and the names sound bad. |
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| B | 你别激动，小心吓坏了宝宝。 |
| nǐ bié jīdòng, xiǎoxīn xià huài le bǎobao. |
| Don't get excited-- don't scare little precious. |
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| A | 她今天拿了一张纸给我，都是找人算命起的名字。你自己看，什么李金鹏，李金涛，俗不俗啊？现在哪有小孩叫这种名字？说出去还不被人笑死。 |
| tā jīntiān ná le yī zhāng zhǐ gěi wǒ, dōu shì zhǎo rén suànmìng qǐ de míngzi. nǐzìjǐ kàn, shénme Lǐ Jīnpéng, Lǐ Jīntāo, sú bù sú ā? xiànzài nǎyǒu xiǎohái jiào zhèzhǒng míngzi? shuō chūqù hái bù bèi rén xiào sǐ. |
| She gave me a piece of paper today. It had a bunch of names that she got from fortune-tellers. Look for yourself-- there's stuff like "Li Jinpeng," "Li Jintao"-- are those common or what? What kind of kids have names like that these days? You couldn't say them without people laughing. |
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| B | 妈也是一片好心嘛。我回头跟她说说，名字还是由我们来决定。对了，你那时候不是说叫孩子“李于”吗？我觉得挺好，我们俩的姓放在一起。而且男女都能用。 |
| mā yě shì yīpiànhǎoxīn ma. wǒ huítóu gēn tā shuō shuo, míngzi hái shì yóu wǒmen lái juédìng. duìle, nǐ nà shíhou bù shì shuō jiào háizi "lǐyú" ma? wǒ juéde tǐng hǎo, wǒmen liǎ de xìng fàng zài yīqǐ. érqiě nánnǚ dōu néng yòng. |
| She has good intentions. I'll talk it over with her in a bit-- the name should be chosen by us. Oh, right-- didn't you say one time that you wanted to call the baby "Li Yu?" I think that's a great name. It combines both of our surnames. And it would fit a boy or a girl. |
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| A | 可是我现在想想，不能用这个名字。你想，李于，李于，别人听了还以为是一条“鲤鱼”呢。否决！ |
| kěshì wǒ xiànzài xiǎng xiang , bùnéng yòng zhè ge míngzi. nǐ xiǎng, Lǐ yú, Lǐ yú, biérén tīng le hái yǐwéi shì yī tiáo "lǐyú" ne. fǒujué! |
| But thinking about it now, we can't use that name. Think about it-- when they hear it, people will think it's a carp [which is pronounced the same in Chinese--Ed.] Veto! |
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| B | 那能不能叫李庸？ |
| nà néngbùnéng jiào Lǐ Yōng? |
| Well, could we call the baby "Li Yong?" |
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| A | 你就知道武侠小说。还是否决。我可不想让孩子一辈子平庸。 |
| nǐ jiù zhīdào wǔxiá xiǎoshuō . hái shì fǒujué. wǒ kě bù xiǎng ràng háizi yībèizi píngyōng. |
| You only know about martial arts novels. I'm vetoing it. I definitely don't want the baby to be mediocre his whole life [the character "yong" here implies "middle."--Ed.] |
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| B | 那金庸一点儿也不平庸啊。算了算了，那你说叫什么好吧？ |
| nà JīnYōng yīdiǎnr yě bù píngyōng ā. suànle suànle , nà nǐ shuō jiào shénme hǎo ba? |
| [Marital arts novelist] Jin Yong isn't mediocre at all. Forget it-- what do you think we should call the baby? |
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| A | 我觉得应该给宝宝取一个独一无二的名字。你把字典拿来。 |
| wǒ juéde yīnggāi gěi bǎobao qǔ yī ge dúyīwú èr de míngzi. nǐ bǎ zìdiǎn nálái. |
| I think we should give the baby a unique name. Bring over that dictionary. |
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| B | 你千万别挑生僻字啊。以后别人连宝宝的名字都读不出来，多尴尬。 |
| nǐ qiānwàn bié tiāo shēngpìzì ā. yǐhòu biérén lián bǎobao de míngzi dōu dú bù chūlái, duō gāngà. |
| Whatever you do, don't pick a rare character. When people can't even read the baby's name later on, it'll be so awkward. |
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| A | 要么起四个字的名字？李于后面再加两个字。 |
| yàome qǐ sì ge zì de míngzi? LǐYú hòumian zài jiā liǎng ge zì. |
| How about we come up with a four-letter name? We can add two characters after "Li Yu." |
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| B | 你不是自己说李于不好吗？而且四个字的名字现在是时髦，以后肯定很奇怪。哎，我一直觉得我爷爷的名字好。要不取他名字里的一个字？ |
| nǐ bù shì zìjǐ shuō Lǐyú bù hǎo ma? érqiě sì ge zì de míngzi xiànzài shì shímáo, yǐhòu kěndìng hěn qíguài. āi, wǒ yīzhí juéde wǒ yéye de míngzi hǎo. yàobu qǔ tā míngzi lǐ de yī ge zì? |
| Didn't you say that "Li Yu" is no good? And four-letter surnames are fashionable now, but they'll definitely be strange in the future. Oh, I've always thought that my grandpa's name was really good. How about we use a character from his name? |
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| A | 你懂不懂规矩啊，用长辈的名字可是最忌讳的。 |
| nǐ dǒng bù dǒng guīju ā, yòng zhǎngbèi de míngzi kěshì zuì jìhuì de. |
| Do you understand the rules, or not? Using names from the older generation is the biggest taboo! |
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| B | 啊哟，现在起名字真难。我们生下来的时候，父母随便起一个名字。我们不也挺好的嘛！ |
| āyō, xiànzài qǐ míngzì zhēn nán. wǒmen shēngxiàlai de shíhou, fùmǔ suíbiàn qǐ yī ge míngzi. wǒmen bù yě tǐng hǎo de ma! |
| Oh, coming up with a name is really hard these days! When we were born, our parents just casually came up with a name. Aren't we fine? |
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| A | 什么？你是说我的名字难听吗？ |
| shénme? nǐ shì shuō wǒ de míngzi nántīng ma? |
| What? Are you saying my name sounds bad? |
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