How I named 250,000 Chinese babies | Beau Jessup | TEDxBrighton

Beau tells the story of how she became aware of China's growing need for English names, how she developed her idea into a website, then into a business and why she thinks her story connected with a global audience.

Beau believes that providing a service related to a happy event, shared by the families and friends of the largest population on the planet, is a good way to ensure long-term success. She thinks that it may be easier for a young person to act on their idea because they are unaware of the obstacles ahead of them.

Beau is a 17-year-old A-level student whose website 'Specialname.cn' went viral in the UK after featuring in a BBC News story. The following day the story went global and was featured in 187 newspapers in 17 different countries. Beau's website helps Chinese parents chose an appropriate English name for their baby and in just four months has named 237,000 Chinese babies.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hi, my name's Beau.

I'm 17 years old.

And in the past nine months,
I've named 250,000 Chinese babies.

(Laughter)

I named the first 162,000 for free
to promote the site.

And then I started
charging 60p for the service.

I currently name around 850 babies a day.

(Laughter)

On the 6th of September,

a local newspaper came
to interview me about the site,

and to my surprise,
the BBC picked up the story.

After that, it just went crazy.

Within 48 hours, 187 news channels
in 18 different countries

had written a story,

and they were all talking
about 'Specialname'.

Basically, what's all this Chinese
baby naming stuff about?

In my first week back at school,

I had just done OK in my GCSEs,

and my plan was to ease my way
into my A-levels unnoticed.

I'm quite shy, so I like
to stay under the radar.

And I don't really like the way
I look in the photographs very often,

so the idea of being viral
and the whole experience

was very overwhelming.

I'd only told a few of my closest friends
about creating the site,

and I hadn't told my school,

because I didn't think anyone
would be very interested.

And when I began getting bombarded
with messages from teenagers

asking for advice,

adults asking for me to employ them,

and some Russian man
asking for the rights to franchise,

it was slightly strange.

One of the strangest things
was my friend saying

that a girl where she lived had been set
a business studies homework on me.

I was fine with being
in the Gloucestershire Echo

next to the apple-picking festival,

but I really didn't know
how I felt about being a project.

One of the things I did like
was, after the Times article,

my friends were telling me
how their parents were having a go at them

for, 'Sitting around all summer,

and Beau's been naming all these babies.'

(Laughter)

And even prompted a half apology
from my mum and dad

for not joining the Young Enterprise Club,

which is like an entrepreneur
society at my school.

Yeah, so enough about me
and more about the site.

What's this baby naming stuff about?

I've been going to China with my mum
and my dad for about five years now,

and that's because my dad
has business in Nanjing.

So this meant that holidays in my family
were quite different.

My friends would go to Cornwall,
and I would go to the Great Wall.

I wasn't too happy about that.

And then in Chengdu, about two years ago,

with my mum and my dad
when we were visiting the pandas,

a business colleague of my dad, Mrs.Wang,

asked me to suggest an English name
for her three-year-old daughter.

I was surprised and obviously flattered.

I didn't want to give
a bad recommendation,

so I said, 'Oh, can you describe
your daughter a little bit more for me?'

She then said to me that her daughter
was pretty, intelligent, reserved,

but the main thing she stressed was

she wanted her daughter
to be able to surprise people

with the things she could achieve.

I gave it some thought,

and I suggested the name Eliza,
based on Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion.

Luckily, Mrs.Wang was delighted,

and she then, in the rest of the holiday,
went on to describe to me

why Chinese babies would one day
need a Western name.

Chinese babies are given a Chinese name,

which contains around two or three
Chinese characters.

This creates a unique name
with a carefully constructed meaning,

and, I mean, this is great
if you're a Chinese,

but these names
don't work outside of China.

We can't read them,
we can't pronounce them,

and we can't remember them.

This means that also
there's another little problem,

and the Chinese characters
can't be used in email addresses.

So if you don't have a Western name,

you can't email, purchase online
or basically function in the 21st century.

So why don't Chinese parents just give
their child a Western name by themselves?

And this is because on the internet
in China a lot of it is censored,

and the majority
of websites are restricted.

So even if they were able to gain
access to a baby naming site,

they'd have to be able to read English.

Historically, your English teacher
in China would give you your English name,

or you'd pick one yourself.

And this is where it gets funny,

and universities
start receiving applications

from Goofy Li,

Rolex Wang,

(Laughter)

and Gandalf Wu.

(Laughter)

Yeah, but while we're feeling superior
and we're laughing at the Chinese,

I do think it is important to remember

that these poor translations
can be embarrassing either way.

So for example,

this tough guy thought
he was getting a tattoo what said,

'Strength and Powerful'

when really it says 'Angry goldfish'.

(Laughter)

Also, I've realised
that we are actually all quite similar

and that mums everywhere
have one thing in common,

and that's that they want
the best for their child.

I thought that rather than make a mistake
and pick a silly name,

they'd enjoy using a service
where they can pick an appropriate name

based on their own choice
of characteristics.

There are 16 million babies born
in China every year,

and now they're allowed two babies each.

I thought it might be profitable to help.

(Laughter)

So, I think the best way to show you
is to just show you.

Let's pick a special name.

So here's the homepage.

There's two icons, a boy and a girl,

and below are cartoons

where you can see how bad your life
will be without a special name.

First off, there's a kindergartener
who's happy she has a special name

because it means that her teacher
can remember her name,

and she can make friends easily.

Then, there's Minnie,
who didn't have a special name.

She couldn't go to university,

and she now just has to sit at home
while Catherine and William graduate.

Then, there's a businessman
who is embarrassed

because he doesn't have a special name

and he knows that his English name
has a bad meaning,

so he doesn't want
to give his card over to his partner.

OK, so today I'm going
to pick a baby girl.

And then, there's 12 characteristics,
and I'm going to pick five

which I think best represent
how I want my baby to be when she's older.

Today, I think I'm going to make her
intelligent, confident.

I'd quite like her to be honest,

and I'd also quite like
her to be creative,

and we don't want her
to be too much of an overachiever,

so empathetic.

Then we begin the naming process
by clicking on the green button.

And then it'll start to load

as a specialist is beginning
the naming process.

Then, when the icon pops up,
we know our name's been chosen,

and when I press the green button,

you put in your Alipay ID,

which is the equivalent
of PayPal in China.

I get 60p; you get three names.

Here are three names:

Karen, Ella and Julia.

Each name is displayed with a meaning,

and then with that name,

you also get two examples
of a famous person with that same name.

For example, Karen:
Karen Carpenter, the singer,

and Ella: Ella Henderson,
X-Factor contestant.

Below there's - I didn't mean
that to be offensive -

(Laughter)

there's an orange button,
and then if you click on this button,

you can then share your three suggestions
with friends and family via WeChat.

But I'll get back to that.

A lot of people ask me
how I have time to name all these babies.

And much like Google has time to find
everything for everyone all at once,

I use an algorithm.

The techie people in the room

will know how simple
a filter and score algorithm is,

but the basic principle
is that I built a database of 4,000 names,

added five characteristics to each name

which I think best represent
what that name means.

The user then picks five characteristics,

and then the algorithm
matches my five to their five,

and three suggestions are given.

Why three? This is the cool bit.

I'm 17, I don't know you,
I can't name your baby.

(Laughter)

So basically, you get three suggestions

which I think best match
how you would like your child to be.

Then you share these three suggestions
via WeChat with your friends and family,

and then without the risk
of a cultural mistake,

you pick your special name.

In short, the parent picks
their baby's name, not me.

I just give three suggestions.

So for example,

'Ella' is liked by grandfather,
'Julia' is liked by a little sister,

brother likes 'Ella',

and then obviously, the husband
will agree with his wife.

It's a fun process,

and it brings all friends and family
together a really happy time.

It takes three minutes; it costs 60p.

And yeah, I just thought
it was a nice thing actually.

Sometimes it's not about just making
the money; it's just a nice thing.

Ever since the story
about my website went viral,

I've been given
some amazing opportunities,

one of which is being able to come here
and talk to you today.

I've also tried to make sense
of what happened in that first week

when I came back to school,

and this is about as far as I've got.

So, I'm going to read it with you.

I think in the diverse world
that we live in

when every day
we are prompted by the media

to focus on and fear
the differences between cultures,

we see war and terror and sadness.

I think maybe the reason

newspapers in 18 different countries
reported this story

was because actually we are more the same
than we are different.

We'd rather laugh off our cultural
differences than fear them.

We'd rather celebrate success
than read more failure.

And this story invited people
to be optimistic for 24 hours.

If a British child can make
something from nothing,

then maybe the future is not that bleak.

The story also shared
the human side of China,

a country often depicted
as a sinister global power.

While we're laughing at silly names,

we're also reminded that actually
we're all trying to fit in and get along.

Imagine the global impact
that could be made

if next week the same newspapers

printed a story
about how similar we all are.

Maybe then we could feel safe enough
to enjoy the differences.

I think that would be special.

(Applause) (Cheering)

Thank you.