The 2008 Olympics which are to be held in China, have become more than just a point for pride for the Chinese. It has become a part of their national consciousness. The fact that about 3500 children have been named in the honor of this outstanding event makes clear the importance of Olympics to Chinese nation.

Most of these 3500 children with the name “Aoyun” (Chinese name for Olympics), were born in 2000, when Beijing was one of the competitors for the honor of hosting 2008 summer games. These amazing data was published by Beijing Daily, resting upon the information provided by China’s national identity card database.

Almost all children named “Olympics” are male, and only six of them reside in Beijing, while others are most probably from the rural areas.

The creative Chinese parents went even further with giving their children names related to Olympics: more then 4000 children bare names of main Beijing Games mascots. These names are Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying, and Ni Ni. If put together these names, the received phrase will be translated as “Beijing Welcomes You!”

Chinese parents increasingly use unique names to express individuality of their offspring. This can be explained by the fact that the Chinese population of 1,3 billion has just 129 family names, which creates ambiguity, as a lot of people can have same names and surnames.

To solve the problem, parents turned to creating new, unique names by putting together unusual combination of letters, numbers and symbols. According to deputy director of the National Language Commission, Li Yuming, at least one couple has recently called their child “1A”, while others use the e-mail address symbol (@). This symbol is pronounced “Aita” in Chinese meaning “I love him”.