Will a wisely chosen name help a child get a leg-up in its future life?

The answer is probably "yes", as there are many Western studies that show people's names have all kinds of effects on their social relationships and career advancement. For example, children with popular names are less likely to get into trouble with the law and people with the easiest-to-pronounce names rise faster on the social ladder.

But when the new group of students enrolled in colleges across China this year, many registered monikers that were difficult to pronounce or could annoy others and draw ridicule, a phenomenon that has baffled many faculty and sociologists.