[ocracoke]

This is just for curiosity. How many of you who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia have or plan to change your child's name? What are your reasoning for your decision? Will you keep an Ethiopian name as part of the name?

I will go first, I fully intended to change my daughter's name when I adopted. I wanted the opportunity to name my child and I knew this may be my only chance. Personally I wasn't worried about the implications of renaming as my name was changed when I was adopted at age 7 years old and had no problem with it. But then I got my referral and liked her name. Then I found out her history and the meaning of the name and new that I would end up keeping it. My daughter's birth name is Biset which is Ge'ez and means "if he gives." While I understand that it is a religious meaning it also has a personal meaning as her biological father relinquished her for adoption which allowed her to become my daughter.

Her birth name was Biset Dagnew
her current name is Biset Annika Nanette

Samantha

[braedensmommy]

Hi, Samantha!
Good post...
We changed our son's name but kept his middle name (adopted from Guatemala)
He is Braeden Pablo.
For our daughter, we plan to do the same thing or we may use her first name as her middle name.
Megan
P..s I also LOVE your daughter's name and have said to my husband that if it is a name that strikes us, we will keep her name.

[JenC]

Before we knew of him, we had decided on a first and middle name with keeping his Ethio name as a second middle name. He came home at 4 months old, and for the first week or so we called him Biruk. Gradually we started calling him Joshua Biruk, then just Joshua. When our readopt is final, his name will be Joshua Peyton Biruk. We call him Josh, Joshua, and recently have started calling him Biruk again.

BTW, you did get those scrapbook pages for Toukoul by now, right?

[ocracoke]

Jen,

I did receive your photo album pages and loved them. I have received a few in the last couple of weeks and keep forgetting to let people know. I will post on the group to all -- thanks for reminding me. I am hoping that I will have one album full soon so that I can send it with some travelers in the beginning of the year.

Samantha

[renee-albright]

We are in the process hoping for a baby boy. We had chosen the name Noah Jamison for a boy long before we had an adoption plan. Noah is a name we both love and jamison is my husbands middle name. When we get to the stage of having a referrel we will decide on keeping part of the childs given name as a second middle name. We feel strongly about giving our child a name we have chosen but are not opposed to him having a second middle name..

[Ladyofmoonlight]

We opted to change our son's name, for a couple of reasons. For starters, I worried about someday adopting a child with a name that simply would no go over well in the US, either because there was no way we could pronounce it or because it would be too similar to another word that might have bad connotations. I thought it might be easier if all of our children have the same sort of name, a new American name as a first name and their full original name as their middle names. Also, before we were that far in the process I fell in love with the name Paxton. It just sort of popped into my head one day and I thought "we're going to end up with a son and his name will be Paxton." Lo and behold, we have a son named Paxton

His original name was Tariku Kachara, which has an awesome meaning. Tariku, though we like it, is also a pretty common name in Ethiopia and I'm not too fond of common names (there were always 2-4 other Megan's in my class growing up). Though I know it's not a common name in the US, I still wanted to give him something more unique. So he's Paxton Tariku Kachara, or Paxton Tariku as I typically call him online.

I do want to note that we did consider strongly keeping his name the same and just adding our last name on, partially because we really like Tariku, and partially because so many people told us we HAD to change it! We didn't choose to change his name because it might be hard to pronounce (it's only 3 syllables and it's pretty easy!) and we didn't change it because it sounded too "African" or "foreign, which is what others have told us. We simply wanted to name our son and we fell in love with a name. Now I'm going to forever be in the predicament of defending his original name (now his middle name) to people telling us "Thank God you changed that!" even while I still chose to give him a new name and call him by it! Very confusing...

[Valarie_W]

I am adopting two siblings. I have decided to GIVE them first names. I'll say it that way rather than changing their names. The children will have new American first names added and I will leave their current names as middle names. I am also leaving their last names intact.

I am adopting as a single woman so I have decided to change my last name to their last name. That way we are all starting with new names. I believe that the children will be identifiably Ethiopian by looking at them (at least by other Ethiopians). I would like for their name to reflect that.

Valarie
With Eyes Like Mine Blog

[kerriv]

My daughter came home from Guatemala at 8 months. Her birth name is Dulce Maria and I just added a new first name so her name now is Ruby Dulce Maria (Ruby is a family name).
I'm planning to start my second adoption this spring and am currently planning on a girl from Ethiopia hopefully around 3 years old. Due to the age, I am thinking I will probably keep her first name as it is and maybe add a middle name. I may also wait and ask her what she prefers. I'm not sure yet. I'm interested to read about changing names of older kids because it is so different than changing an infant's name.

[kerriv]

My daughter came home from Guatemala at 8 months. Her birth name is Dulce Maria and I just added a new first name so her name now is Ruby Dulce Maria (Ruby is a family name).
I'm planning to start my second adoption this spring and am currently planning on a girl from Ethiopia hopefully around 3 years old. Due to the age, I am thinking I will probably keep her first name as it is and maybe add a middle name. I may also wait and ask her what she prefers. I'm not sure yet. I'm interested to read about changing names of older kids because it is so different than changing an infant's name.

[Quesita]

Originally Posted by Valarie_W

I am adopting two siblings. I have decided to GIVE them first names. I'll say it that way rather than changing their names. The children will have new American first names added and I will leave their current names as middle names. I am also leaving their last names intact.

I am adopting as a single woman so I have decided to change my last name to their last name. That way we are all starting with new names. I believe that the children will be identifiably Ethiopian by looking at them (at least by other Ethiopians). I would like for their name to reflect that.

Valarie
With Eyes Like Mine Blog

Wow Valarie!!!!! What a simply amazing decision for you!!!!

I hope that you do not mind another visitor from the Guatemala boards. I often fantasize about adopting a second child, and if I do, I am pretty sure she will be from Ethiopia. So I am a regular reader here.

Before my daughter was referred to me, I spoke with a number of adult adoptees who stressed the importance of keeping a child's birth name because that is all the child brings with her of her culture that was given to her by her birth family. I had mixed feelings, but I listened carefully to the words of these adults who knew the world of international adoption in a way I did not.

When my amazingly beautiful daughter's photo arrived for the first time in my email, I was in love. Her birth name, however, was "Kimberly"

The name did not speak to me. She did not look like a Kimberly. And it was clearly not a name with meaning representative of her culture. It is also really hard to pronounce in Spanish.

My daugther's name is Liana Della. And it is just the perfect name for her.

[Petsitter]

Wechose a namefor our son that we loved and that had meaning to us, however, we also wanted him to have a connection with his heritage.So we took his Chines first and middle and combined them as a second middle name :ChunJian.

We hope to do the same thing ths time.

[frankiegirl]

We changed our daughters name from Yuliana to Alejandra (Aly) Yuliana. I had a name picked out before we had pictures of her. If I had not been so in love with Alejandra we would of kept Yuliana as her first name. I love the name Yuliana.
We are hoping to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia and we will keep some part of his given name. My father just passed away and I really want to give my son a part of my fathers name

[valerie23]

We are adopting a child between the ages of 18 months and 3 years. We HOPE to keep his/her name and just tack on our last name. I'm sure once we get our referral it will make this decision much easier. If his/her name is just too hard to pronounce (for others) then we would consider a nickname. Ohhh, it's so exciting to think about!! And I'm so glad to see activity on this board!!

[proudmommie2be]

Just started the process but I am planning to change my child's name.I am not sure if I am going to keep part of his/her name yet.

[olliegirl]

We added a first name for our son. He was abandoned at maybe a couple of weeks old and given his ET name by the staff at social services . . .. my agency contact said that they never give names to the babies, she usually does. So someone thought he should be named Nahome! We are naming him Caleb and keeping his middle as Nahome and then all my kids have a third name that is the same . . .we looked at names for a long time and chose one that had meaning that we liked and reflected his (probably! 95 of folks in the town he is from are Orthodox Christian) religious heritage. Caleb, tho spelled with a K, is also a name used in ET . . .