[waitin'mama]

To help pass the time while I’m waitin, I thought I'd take a poll (I feel like I'm back in school, only we are using the board instead of passing notes!).

How did you decide on the name for your child/children?
Birth name?
Family name?
Favorite name?
Combination of the above?

Thanks for helping me pass the time!

waitin’mama

[Mary Mulcahy]

My son's birth name was Jose Pablo and since I have an Irish, very Irish last name I moved his name around to Daniel (because its a name that covers many cultures re: Irish, Spanish, English ect) Jordan for my best friend's son who died shortly after birth and Jose Pablo. I figure he can use whatever name he likes when he is an adult. We used to have a restruant in the area named Carlos Murphy's so I did not want his name to sound like that. So his name (now legally re adopted and has COC) is Daniel Joradan Jose Pablo Mulcahy. Covers all the bases.
Mary

[crfamily2004]

We were a little hesitant about changing his name, but our agency suggested it for helping him to establish his new culture. At the same time, his given name has become quite a mix-up and depending on if it's the agency, facilitator, foster mom...etc...they all call him something different. So we took his given name, pushed it to the middle and gave him a new first name. How did we choose it? NO LOGIC Whatsoever. NO family tradition, it was funny, we just took one look at him and said, 'Joey'. here's a pic, could he have any other name? we don't think so.

[csw]

Both of our grandmothers names are Anna...and my mom and sisters middle name is Ann...so we named her Ana...and I have just always loved the name Sofia...I got to name her on the original birth certificate,,since we had her referral when she was still in the hospital after birth! With our son...looking back.. I really wish I had kept his given name Antonio...I guess I was thinking at the time I really liked Antonio, but not Tony so much..and I had always liked the name Sean..and his middle name is my husbands first name...
I met our son's birth mother 2x in Peru..she could not understand "Sean"..she kept calling him Juan and John...what we are thinking about doing now..is a legal name change for him and adding Antonio to his name... Cathy

[Kimberj71]

We kept the name Londy's birthmom gave her...Londy Maribel and added a family name...Mae. Our first 3 children are all named at least partially after someone in the family and we didn't want to leave Londy or Jeremy out. We also kept Jeremy's name from his birthmom.....Jeremy Ardany and slipped the family name Louis in between them.

So we have Londy Maribel Mae and are waiting on Jeremy Louis Ardany.

Kim

[jen]

My dh had an uncle named Nick and we both liked it. We decided to use the more formal Nicolas and I just had to spell it the spanish or french way ( I'm a French teacher). We kept his given middle name so he is Nicolas Antonio.

We went back and forth forever on a girl name. I loved Molly but he said no way, but did like Holli and yes with that crazy i on the end ha ha. I gave in to the i thing and agreed with Holli. Again we kept part of her given last name so she is Holli Cruz.

I also love the fact that their b-days are both within a month of Christmas and the names Nick and Holli seem to be fitting.

[Rhonda Roo]

This is great!!! Actually, how we came up with a name "should we ever have children" is what started us on our adoption journey. Neither hubby nor I talked about having kids--then---DH went away for a business trip. When I picked him up from the airport, I said I had thought of a boy's name that I would like should we ever have children. He looked at me oddly, and said that a name just came to him while he was on the plane ride home. I shared the name: Alexander -- and dear hubby's jaw hit the floor---it was the same name he thought of! Thus began our adoption journey. We decided to name our son Alexander Jordan (Jordan is DH's first name); and call him AJ. When we decided to adopt from Guatemala, we changed Alexander to Alejandro to keep some latino in his name. We lost two referrals along the way, and DH decided to change his middle name of Jordan to Jacob because of the bible story---we felt we wrestled with God all night, and said we refuse to let go until you bless us. When we received the referral of our son, his birth mother had named him Carlos Alfredo. We both said that we liked the name Carlos--but were still in love calling our son AJ. Therefore, we decided to keep his first name Carlos, and then give him the middle names of Alexander Jacob. We call him AJ. All of our latino friends just don't get the concept of calling people by initials--so they call him Carlito.

And in the same fashion, we agreed on a name for our daughter before we decided to start the journey into adoption. We are going to name her Olivia (just because I like that name) Lynne (after my best friend). Should we have a son: Benito (I love this name!) Travis (DH's middle name), and call him Ben. And just like we did with our first born, we will keep part of their given name and incorporate it into what we have now.

FYI--we just completed Home Study, and are going for INS fingerprinting on Monday. Our best "guesstimate" for having dossier ready and ready for referral is late July.


Rhonda Roo

[kellykamp2004]

Well...we had the name "Maya Grace" picked out for our baby and I know I wanted an "M" name (my 3 yr old bio daughter is Madison....)

However when I saw her picture, they said her name was "Narisa" and I said "Marissa?" and they said no, "Narisa" but from that moment her name was "Marissa"...it just was in my head and that was it...had to talk dh into it later actually...

Her birth name was Narisa Guadalupe and so we changed the N to an M for "Marissa" and gave her the middle name "Grace"...(still a "G")...liek Guadalupe...

This is a fun thread!

[crathke]

Our son's birth name was Ruben Orlando. When our agency called with his referral and said, "his name is Ruben Orlando..." the first thing that popped into my head (awful as it sounds) was, "not any more, it isn't."

A number of reasons for the decision--some which came right away, some came over time. Firstly, "Ruben" sounds dreadful with "Rathke"; secondly--you know how there's always one house in the neighborhood with the beater cars in the driveway and the lawn that's never mowed? Well, in our neighborhood the owner of that house is (you guessed it): "Reuben". We just couldn't do it, and we even kicked around calling him "Ben". (didn't help that there's a kid in Nick's grade in school named Ben whom he Does Not Care For). Thirdly...well, let's just say there's a third reason, too.

--so off we went on the Name Game. We chose Aaron's name the same way we chose Nick's--I followed my husband around the house with a baby name book, reciting "Aaron, Abraham, Brian, Christopher, Daniel, David..." (you get the idea). "Aaron" was the only one we could all agree on.

My older son chose "Michael" as a middle name. We wanted to keep some part of his birthname, and since we'd already pretty much shot down "Ruben", we kept "Orlando", which is how he now knows when he is *really* in trouble. Being called by three names is a minor infraction in his book, but if Mommy tosses "Orlando" into the mix, there's a time-out in the Very Near Future!

[DianaPrince]

I don't even have a referral yet, but my daughter's name will contain Maria--my sister lost before I was born, and Spring--my great-grandmother's maiden name, my middle name. I keep thinking that perhaps I will receive a referral for a child already named Maria.

I will also consider her birth name and would like to keep at least part of it.

My friends often joke about the potential arrival of Clarita Luisa Guadalupe Maria Spring. I have no problem with that.

Valerie

[Michelle 053002]

Hubby and I were positive for a boy's name, I had a hunch we'd get a boy cuz every child we were told about and shown for was a boy. We could NOT agree on a girls name, then one night only 1 week before "the CALL" that our dd was born we were driving in the car and the only music we agree on is Celtic music, national public radio has a show on Saturday nights called "the thistle & the shamrock" we love it. well, the hosts name is Fiona Ritchie. I say to dh, what a beautiful name, I am expecting the usual comment of "no daughter of mine will be named Fiona" , but no he says I Like it too, it was decided just like that. Her middle name Ebonee is the name her Bmom chose. her name means fair dark beauty, I think it's fitting.
michelle

[oh well]

We named annie....ANN Rose
Ann to honor my dear husbands late mother who passed away when he was only 30...
Rose after little annies birthmom (her first name)
so there was never really any other choice!

We called our Annie her "spanish name" in Guatemala because thats who she "still" was...
but once we landed in America she became "our annie"!
kind of like going from a catapillar to a beautiful butterfuy!!!

[chechi doller]

We were ambivalent regarding changing her name. Finally we started playing with the letters in her name and find out that all the letters in MIRANDA came out of her birth name, we added a second name honoring my husbands grandmother.

Hope you find a great name with powerful meaning for both of you!

Love,

Cecilia

[becky]

Jayme Elizabeth (after my dad and my sister)
Kellye Lucille (after my sister and my hubby's grandmother)
Christian Michael (favorite boy's name and after my hubby's grandfather)
Benjamin Thomas (after the little boy in the Oprah Book "The Deep End of the Ocean", which I read when I was pregnant with him and after his father's middle name)
Isabella Grace (two favorite girls names of all time)

[Shoshana]

When I started the homestudy process for a Guatemalan adoption, I chose the Shoshana Janelle (Janelle after my parent's bio daughter who died at age 3 before I was born.)

Then because of the Hague mess, I switched to Russia and changed the name from Shoshana to Nadezhda Janelle.

Then I received a referral for Guatemala and her name was Julissa Xiomara. Well, Shoshana was passe, so I decided on Marielena Janelle. But as time went on, I felt less comfortable with changing the entire name. I've long loved Xiomara so I kept that for the first name, and Janelle for the middle name. (Julissa, imo, sounds horrible with an American accent and even worse with my last name).

I realized I'd be teaching people how to pronounced it forever, but I figured that'd be easier than explaining to a 13 yr old why I'd changed her whole name!

So Xiomara it is! -- or Xio -- or CJ (her grandpapa's solution to the pronunciation challenge -- the x is pronounced as a c -- plus, I think he was really proud that I named her Janelle).

so now that i've written way more than anyone wanted to know, i'll just add the pronunciation -- see-oh-mahtta (the spanish r sounds like the tt in butter) or the americanized version -- see-oh-mara.