has a new e-paI, Elizabeth,

她有個新網路筆友，Elizabeth，

an American high school girl.

她是美國女高中生。

In her last e-mail to Jiayi,

在她給 Jiayi 的上封電子郵件中，

Elizabeth asked about the meaning of Jiayi's name in Chinese.

Elizabeth 問 Jiayi 她的中文名字意思。

In the following e-mails, they share stories about their names.

在接下來的電子郵件中，她們分享自己的名字故事。

Dear Elizabeth, thanks for the reply.

親愛的 Elizabeth，謝謝妳的回覆。

I'd be pleased to tell you about my Chinese name.

我很開心可以跟你分享我中文名字的故事。

My full name is Tao Jiayi.

我的全名叫 Tao Jiayi。

Tao is my family name and Jiayi is my given name.

Tao 是我的姓氏，Jiayi 是我的名字。

Tao means "a potter",

Tao 的意思是「陶藝家」，

a person who makes clay pots by hand.

就是手工製陶藝的人。

Our ancestors might have been potters thousands of years ago.

我們的祖先可能在幾千年前是陶藝家。

My given name, Jiayi, is from a fortune teller.

我的名字 Jiayi 是算命師取的。

Most parents in Taiwan go to fortune tellers for a baby's name.

在台灣，大部分的父母會讓算命師幫自己的小孩取名字。

We Chinese believe that a person's name should match his or her time of birth,

我們相信一個人的名字應該與他/她的出生時間相符合，

or he/she may have an unlucky life.

否則他/她會有不好的人生。

My name is made up of two characters, Jia and Yi.

我的名字是由兩個漢字組成，Jia 和 Yi。

Jia means "beautiful" and Yi "happy".

Jia是「美麗」的意思，Yi 是「快樂」的意思。

According to the fortune teller,

根據算命師的說法，

this name is perfect for my time of birth.

這個名字很適合我的出生時間。

But in fact, Jiayi is a very common name.

但事實上，Jiayi 是個很常見的名字。

There are twenty other students named Jiayi in my school.

在我的學校，有二十個學生都叫 Jiayi。

How about your name?

那你的名字呢？

What does it mean?

有什麼含義嗎？