[LisArno]

We kept all three of our children's original Polish names/spellings as their first names. The names of our youngest two are also American names, though spelled differently, so I chose middle names that would also be Polish/American. Our oldest child's first name is quite Polish (there's an OLD American equivalent), so we kept that and gave her an American middle name. We gave all three children the choice of what we actually called them, though our oldest greatly influenced the younger ones. After a few back/forth times, the youngest are called by their original names and the oldest by her middle name, though she signs her papers in school with her first name.

The name changes were done in Poland. We made two trips, so we were sure of the names prior to making flight reservations to bring our children home on the second trip.

It's obviously a very personal decision about names. For me, I did not want to take away the Polish part of "who they were". However, I also understand other parents who want their children to have a fresh start with a new name.