Loose Women star Lisa Maxwell's daughter, 19, reveals how she pays her university fees out of £300,000 she's made from website 'selling' traditional English children's names to Chinese parents

The teenage daughter of Loose Women star Lisa Maxwell has revealed she made £300,000 helping Chinese parents pick an English name for their children and says that she intends to use the money to pay her university fees.

Beau Jessup, 19, from Edge, Gloucestershire has named more than 677,000 babies so far and also plans to invest in property.

She studies social anthropology at the London School of Economics.

Since setting up her company at 16, it has gone from strength to strength and she even gave a TEDx talk about the business.

Beau set up SpecialName.cn after spending time in China and travelling with her father.

One of his business associates, a Mrs Wang, asked for help in naming her three-year-old daughter and when Beau suggested Eliza, after Eliza Doolittle, the woman was delighted.

All Chinese babies are given a traditional Chinese name at birth, which is written in Chinese characters and used for all government documents.

But there has been a growing demand in the last 20 years to adopt an additional English name that can be read, pronounced and printed in English.

Beau says she was dismayed at some of the names she heard, like Popcorn and Gandalf.

The most popular names chosen on Beau's website
Speaking to News.AU, Beau previously revealed the most popular girls and boys names.

Royal family names proved popular with Chinese families, with Katherine, Mary, Elizabath and Charlotte topping the list.

Meanwhile, the most used English-style names for boys were William, Matthew and Jake.

The former Cheltenham Ladies College pupil said at the time: '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.

'It made me realise there was an opportunity to help Chinese people get it right from the start.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6835181/Loose-Women-stars-daughter-pays-university-selling-English-names-Chinese-parents.html

I'm just bemused as to why the Chinese can't Google a name and sort it like that.

HoratioTarr wrote:I'm just bemused as to why the Chinese can't Google a name and sort it like that.

Exactly and the names  they are adopting are all WELL KNOWN royal  names too - they don't even need googling.
[tho it's a bit complicated cos i don't think the Chinese have google available to them it's weibo or summat innit ?]


Ironic that someone with such an un-English and horrid name has made such a killing suggesting nice names [there are lots of very pretty French names but c'mon Beau aint one of them, it's very masculine for starters]

But kudos to her she has done well.  At uni she should be lecturing in business studies, not studying lol.

I love, love, love Lisa Maxwell. Bright as a button - she obvs passed on those good genes to her daughter.

Talk about seeing an opportunity and pouncing on it! But who the hell knew this was going on? Surely she wasn't the only one to notice that Chinese people were naming their kids Popcorn.

HoratioTarr wrote:I'm just bemused as to why the Chinese can't Google a name and sort it like that.

they do, I know many that named themselves in their teens (when moving here)
a lot named after hollywood movie stars or characters but they really had no idea how common or not the names were.


My brother has an ex named 'Tito' ...  she knew it was a Spanish boys name but liked it so choose it anyway


here we also have a service at the airport that helps them pick.. they have a big book
and if the Chinese person is a dick then they will be suggested an odd old name like Ethel or Winston.