[KarenInCa]

Is anyone considering keeping any of your daughter's Chinese name as a middle (or second middle) name?
Also, this sounds really naive....I realize that many times the social workers name the child in an orphanage, but when they say someone's name in China, is the surname first then the child's name? or is it more like ours...first the person's individual name then the surname.

[matrixgirl]

Yes, the surname is always first. In the case of the children in the orphanages, the surname usually has to do with the town where the orphanage is located. For example, our daughter was from a town called "Yongning" and her surname was "Ning".

For us it was very important to keep her chinese (first) name as her middle name. It is really the only thing she has left of her past, so I thought it was important.

[Babybella]

We plan on keeping the baby's name as a second middle name.

[bthomas9500]

We're planning on using her given name as her middle name... We do plan on giving her two middle names though! DH and I joke that she's going to have the longest name ever!

I've read that it's recommended that part of the name is kept, and it looks to me like most families do... but it's totally up to you!

Brandy

[cattacga]

I'm going to chime in with everyone else. We are going to give our daughter an American first name and keep one of her Chinese names or give her a new Chinese name for her middle name.

I've read on other posts that all of the children in the same orphanage have the same last name, given to them by the orphanage.

I also read on another post that some of the older children do not want to keep their names the orphanage gave them because it is "shameful" in Chinese culture. Their is pride in a child being given a name by their family. Just a thought. For babies, I don't think it would matter too much to them. If they are older, you could ask if they want to be given a new name. I've also heard nicknames are very popular for the caregivers to call the children that have to do with their personalities or appearance or where they are from. You could use their Chinese nickname and give them their other names.

Many people have said if you are going to give a brand new Chinese name to first consult a Chinese person to see if it makes sense and flows in Chinese.

There is a good website for Chinese girl/boy baby names at:
www.babynology.com/chinese.

Blessings everyone.

Camille

[cathsears]

For what it's worth, most of my ABC (American born Chinese) friends have both English names and Chinese names, but often the Chinese names (or the English names) aren't legal names, don't appear on any documents, but the family knows and some family members use their Chinese names.

Chinese names are often two words. They aren't two distinct names where you can pick one of the two. The name itself is comprised of two words that might mean "always happy" or something similar.

[SofiasMom]

I kept the last two characters (her given name) as her middle name. The first character (her family/last name) was the name of the town where the orphanage was located and I decided to drop that.

[China2004]

Karen-

Where in California are you? We are in southern CA.

The orphanage my daughter is coming from uses the last name and then only gives 1 first name (most orphanage gives 2 names). We will be using her 1st name as her middle name and probably not using her last name...but still undecided.

Darlene

[DonnaT]

We don't plan to keep her Chinese name. I know this is a very personal and private decision but we've decided that her connection to that name is mostly sad. If it was the name her birth-mother gave her, it might be different but it's the name an orphange gave her. Granted, they took good care of her but it's still not a time in her life that needs (in our opinion) to be commemorated.

Our daughter will be named Gwendolyn Claire Oursurname. She'll be a US citizen and she'll have a new life here in the USA. Her heritage will always be an important part of her and she'll wear it on her face and on the faces of her children and grand-children.

My Great-Great-Grandparents were all born in Germany and nobody thought it was important to "keep our heritage alive" by naming us with a traditional German name or teaching us the language. Somehow, they felt it was more important that we become part of our new community.

If our daughter wants to change her name later, we'll support that. If she wants to learn to speak Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese), we'll support that too! But for now, we want to make her "American" and help her fit in with her peer group.

[Sheba]

Are daughter will be named Kennedy Anice (chinese name)last name. We want to keep part of her name given her, wether it was by the orphanage or the mother. It is important to me that she know her heritage and culture as well as where she came from and who cared for her before we got her. And this is a small way for us to do that.


Julei

[Lissa]

We are naming our daughter Lydia Xin Qian, unless she has the name her birthparents gave her, then I will take Xin Qian as my new middle name. My husand and I plan to legally add a Chinese middle name to our names as well.

[DonnaT]

Lissa, what does Xin Qian mean? We have a friend who's married to a Chinese woman named Xin. Her name is pronuonced like "Shin". How do you say Qian?

[Lissa]

Xin Qian is a state of being...Happy Beautiful is the literal translation but from what I was told it's really more of an internal feeling than an external state of being. Qian is pronounced Chee-ahn. I thought it was the most beautiful name and I liked what it meant.

[DonnaT]

Lissa, that's pretty! Shin Chee-ahn. It sounds pretty too!

[33458]

We plan to use her Chinese name in some form or another, either in part or as a whole, in addition to her adopted name.
How, though? It really depends - if every child there is "Beautiful girl from village" then well...it doesn't stand for as much as I think a name should, but that will be her loving nic-name anyway.
If it is a genuine name, hers personally, then it will be added legally as a middle name.
Whatever the case may be, once she is known to us, I will also be getting her Chinese name as it has been told to us; tattooed in character...although I don't think I'll show the Chinese agency my new honorarium.