The Study of Names

一般常常聽到的英文名字，你都瞭解嗎？比如說，電影《電子情書》（You've Got Mail）中甜美又可愛但略顯嬌小的女主角Meg Ryan的 "Meg"是英文的那個字？閱讀本文後，你將對英文名字較敏感，而且會感到更有興趣。你知道黑人諧星Eddie Murphy的 "Eddie"到底是甚麼意思？或是影壇帥哥Mel Gibson中的 "Mel"到底是甚麼英文名字的簡稱？想知道答案，請參考下面整理的表格。

Names are important. Each one is unique and points to something special. When the Italian writer Carlo Collodi1 wrote his world-famous book, The Adventures of Pinocchio, he told readers about the origin of the wooden puppet(2) hero Pinocchio who was made of "pine," as the root word "Pino" indicates. The origin and variation of names is worth studying. Our names give us an identity(3). Generally speaking(4), the complete name of a Western person has three parts: a given name(5), a middle name, and a family name(6). Given names are known as first names or Christian names. Then comes the middle name, and finally the last name. Family names show the relationship between grandparents, parents and children.

What follows is a list of popular first names and their short forms which, we hope, you'll find interesting(7).

1.義大利兒童文學作家，著有《木偶奇遇記》（The Ad-ventures of Pinocchio）。2.puppet：名詞，木偶。3.identity：名詞，身分、認同。4.generally speaking：副詞片語，一般來說。5.given name：教名，名字（不包括姓氏）。6.family name：姓，也叫last name或surname。7.interesting：形容詞，有趣的。名詞是interest。其用法如下： Feel [have, take] an interest in sth.對某事感興趣。Feel [have, take] no interest in sth.對某事不感興趣。It is of interest to note that...值得注意的是；饒有興趣的是。Place of interest名勝。A matter of considerable interest相當重要的事。A matter of little interest 不大重要的事。