[sak9645]

I like Aviva Chanit.

My daughter's English name is Rebecca Joy Chufang K------. Rebecca is for her deceased great-grandmother; my mother loved her mother very much and always wanted me to name a child after her. Joy reflects how I felt about adopting her, and is also for her grandfather, Jack, and her great-grandfather, Joseph, who are deceased. Chufang is the first and middle name assigned by her Chinese orphanage, and means "clear and beautiful".

My daughter's nickname is Becca. Since her great-grandmother was known as Becky, I wanted her to have a nickname that was unique to her.

For Becca's Hebrew name, I chose Rivka Gilat. Rivka, of course, is the Hebrew version of Rebecca. Gilat is one way to say "joy" in Hebrew. Gilat also sounds a bit like Goldie, her late grandmother's name. My mother would never have wanted me to name a child Goldie, as she hated her name, but I wanted to honor her in some way and this was what I chose.

My own Hebrew name is Sarah Chana. Sarah is for my father's mother, who died in what was then Russia, but what is now Belarus. Chana is for my father's sister, who also died overseas. While I am very partial to the name Chana, and love the story of the Biblical Hannah, who was infertile and prayed for a child so fervently that Eli, the priest, thought she was intoxicated, I recognize that you might not want two closely related Chanas in the family. However, if you adopted after a diagnosis of infertility, you might want to use the name Chana to give voice to your feeling of joy that you finally were able to have the child of your dreams.


Sharon