British Schoolgirl Makes £50,000 Helping Chinese Families Name Their Babies

A British teenager has made a fortune helping Chinese families choose western names for their newborns.

Beau Jessup, 16, came up with the idea after hearing of Chinese babies with unusual names like Rolex, Rambo and Gandalf.

The daughter of actress and former Loose Women panelist Lisa Maxwell went on to launch specialname.cn, a website that has so far helped more than 200,000 Chinese parents name their children.

While the children already have a Chinese name, their parents hope an alternative English name, which is easy to pronounce, read and write, will enhance their child’s prospects overseas.

As internet access is limited in China, standard baby-naming websites are off limits - hence the popularity of SpecialName.

Beau - a pupil at £38,000-a-year Cheltenham Ladies’ College - charges parents 60p a go to use the site. She says that 221,000 people have used it since its launch six months ago, making her a cool £48,000.

What’s in a name? Some of the options suggested by SpecialName (SWNS)

Beau said: “When I went to China I kept being asked to name babies for my parents’ 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.”

The site asks parents to choose from a list of personality traits, which leads them to three shortlisted names, their meaning and a famous namesake - such as Catherine Middleton.

The site currently makes £16,000 in sales per month, which Beau - who has a GCSE in Mandarin - intends to spend on her university fees.

She says: “I spend two hours a day talking to my customers asking how I can make the service better and about an hour making improvements.

"Since parents love sharing photos of their babies, I have recently added a gallery, so I’m gradually building a SpecialName community.”