At Mobo we love stumbling across websites that offer niche services, celebrating examples of how sites can give way to professional innovation. This week we were excited to come across specialname.cn, a website run by a 16 year old student from Cheltenham Ladies’ College. Helping Chinese parents give their babies English names the service is proving pretty popular, seeing the student, Beau, make a whopping £50k.
Charging just 60p per name the idea came after Beau was asked to name a family friend’s child on a trip to China. Quickly discovering that many Chinese babies were being given English names that made no sense Beau saw a substantial gap in the market, one that she filled on her return to England.
Beau said: “When I went to China I kept being asked to name babies for my parent’s friends.
“They explained an English name is vital because you can’t use a Chinese name on email or a university application to the UK. Your English name stays with you for life.
“But I also heard lots of examples where people had chosen culturally inappropriate English names they’d heard from films or read online and realised there was an opportunity to help Chinese people get it right from the start.”
Having already helped 200,000 Chinese parents, selecting names that are easy to pronounce, read and write.
Specialname user, Songbu Wang, used the site to name her son, believing it to increase his chances of a bright future.
“My friends told me Specialname was very useful, so I decided to have a try. I chose Nathan because it sounds strong, what’s more, I have seen the definition from my Specialname certificate; Nathan means ‘generous’.
“I think a good man should be generous, then women will like him. I hope my son isn’t a jealous guy. I think English name can influence my child’s life,” she added.
“I hope he can have more opportunities to learn English, to work with foreigners or go aboard to open his eyes. I think no matter working or studying or making friends with foreigners, a good English name is a good start.”
Take a look at this incredible site and let us know what you think about the business.
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