As the expectant father of a baby boy (first week of March if all goes well), Imagethief was interested to see the following brief AP article:

BEIJING -- The upcoming Beijing Olympics is more than just a point of pride for China - it's such an important part of the national consciousness that nearly 3,500 children have been named for the event.

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, citing information from China's national identity card database.

The vast majority of people named Aoyun are male, the newspaper said.

As an e-mail circulating among my foreign friends notes, this is somewhat reminiscent of the revolutionary names that were in vogue some decades ago when it was considered good form to use your child as proof of your adherence to Mao Zedong thought. "Kangmei" (a personal favorite) and such.

Nevertheless, Imagethief feels it is bad form to name children after enormous, commercial ventures (or revolutionary concepts, for that matter). Especially ones that have a limited shelf life. Trust me, by October 2008, it's going be "Ao-what?". And that's if the games go well. If they go badly the name "Aoyun" will be an even worse millstone. Imagethief himself bears something of an unusual name (William is my middle name) and is well aware of how, during the junior high school years or Chinese equivalent, such can be the fast route to a tour of the inside of a trash can.

Thus, I suggest the Chinese steer away from naming their children "Aoyun". Or, for Shanghai parents, "Shibo" (世博), after the shorthand for the upcoming Shanghai 2010 World Expo. Or anything similar. Honestly, if you want a goofy name for your child, at least pick one that will be timeless. Like, for instance, "Diccon".