British girl earns $64,100 helping Chinese name their babies

A 16-year-old has made $64,100 from a website she made to give Chinese babies English names.

Beau Jessup, a British A-level student from Gloucestershire, came up with the idea after a family visit to China. They were out for a meal with friends when she was asked to give an English name to a newborn baby.

'Special Name' requires the user to pick five of the 12 personality traits which they most hope their baby will grow into.

In China they name their child based on the elements and Beau wanted a similarity between how they pick their Chinese name and how they pick their English name.

And she does this by assigning personality traits to each English name.

The three chosen names are then shared with family and friends on We-Chat, China's WhatsApp equivalent, to help make the final decision.

Each suggestion is printed on a certificate with its meaning and an example of a famous person with that name.

Beau says that when she was first asked to name her father's friend's baby, she was surprised.

"I'm not really qualified or relevant enough in that baby's life to be the person to give it a name."

But after hearing of some of the "embarrassing" names, Beau decided she needed to act.

Amelia and Oliver were the most popular baby names in England and Wales in 2015.

That's according to the Office for National Statistics which released the complete set of data last week.

Beau says it's quite strange to know she's named more than 200,000 babies. "It's nice to be a part of such a happy experience and be a part of those young stages in a baby's life."

The site's success has been a pleasant surprise. "I wanted to do it just to see if an idea could turn into more than just simply an idea. It is obviously a nice surprise, but it is definitely a surprise."