[josiah1112]

We are hoping to adopt an infant from Guatemala.
I would like to choose at least part of the name.
What have been your experiences?


GM

[TaxDay04]

Originally Posted by josiah1112

We are hoping to adopt an infant from Guatemala.
I would like to choose at least part of the name.
What have been your experiences?


GM

I was wondering the same thing. Also, If I got referred a newborn, would the foster mom use the name I pick so the baby would be used to it, or do they always use the birth name?

I have already picked the name Savanna Kate for my little girl, even though I haven't even started the adoption process yet.

[jlcoffey1274]

I was told it was proper etiquette (sp) to use part of the childs birth name... that's all I have heard... Most people say they have part of their name.. sort of a reminder to the child, an honor to their culture. J

[amorriso]

our baby's given name is carlos eduardo.... we will change his name to Zachary Carlos as i want to keep part of his given name. we sent a little soft picture album with our pics in it and told the facilitator what his name would be. we are hoping that is what they have been calling him all of this time, but we don't know. we'll find out next week though...

amorriso
traveling to get Zach next week...

[jennzyc]

Hello,

When I adopted my son he was given a name in Guatemala. You can change the name once your back home and finalize the adoption. You can ask for the fostermom to use the name you are going to use. I hope this helps.

Jennifer C.

[okstategrads]

Our daughter's birth name was Jenifer Paola ** and we did change it to Kathryn Elizabeth Paola **when we brought her home. When we visited, we told our foster mom that we would be changing her name and asked her if she would start calling her Kathryn. She was more than happy to do so.

[Heidil87]

My daughter was named Roxana Yulissa and we changed it to Mary Lynn Yulissa.

Mary Lynn was my mother's name. My mother died 10 years ago at the (way too young) age of 56. I still miss her every day and wanted to name my daughter after her. I also hope that it will make my daughter feel even more special and a part of our family to know that she was named after her very much loved grandmother.


Yulissa was her Guatemalan middle name. My hubby, son and I wanted her to keep her Guatemalan name and we all liked her middle name the best with Mary Lynn.
I hope she will like her name. It means the world to me as does she!

[CHARLIECAT]

I have gone around and around with myself on my daughters name would be when she came home.

I also heard that using part of their birth name to honor was a great idea but my daughter was named "Natalia" by the facilitator and she did not even bother to give her a middle name.

So I am still tossing it around and really need to make a decision on her legal name:

It will either be:
Kassandra Lynn
Kassandra Natalia Lynn
Kassandra Lynn Natalia

Unfortunately, Kassandra was baptized on 12/26 and I had written on a form "Kassandra Natalia Lynn" so that was what was registered at our church.

Go with your heart.... when you meet your child see what name looks right when you meet them.

The foster family called her Natalia or Nattie for eight months but she adjusted very quickly to Kassandra.

Peace...Kim

[Indigohop]

Hi,

My son's Guatemalan name is Eduardo. Before I even received his referral I knew I wanted a Spanish name to represent his heritage. I chose not to keep Eduardo as his first name b/c I knew it would be shortened to an Anglecized (sp) name, ie. Eddie, Ed, or Edward. Instead I picked the name Diego b/c, although it can be shortened to a knick name, there isn't a shortened version that is also American sounding.
Lisa

[Mia's Daddy]

What a great and oft thought of question.

Our daughter was born Maria Rene. She was abandoned and so had no last name. My wife and I for months before he found her had desired to name our daughter Mia. Our daughter's name after finalization will be Mia Rene.

It is completely up to you.

[lisam951]

Our dd's given name was Yesenia Marisol. We knew as soon as we heard her name that we really liked the name Marisol and we had already picked out Elizabeth to be her middle name before we had a referral. So we named her Marisol Elizabeth. Later we found out her birthmother's middle name is also Elizabeth. So we knew we picked the right name.
Other than knowing what middle name we wanted, we had decided to wait until we received the referral and see if we liked her given name before we decided.

[resabelle]

We kept a part of both our daughters' birth names.

Amanda's birth name was Thania Amanda (pronounced Tanya).
We changed her name to Amanda Marie Isabelle.

Dylan's birth name was Katherynne (no middle name)
We changed her name to Dylan Mackenzie Katherynne.

[Shoshana]

My was named Julissa Xiomara by her birth mother. Julissa sounds terrible in English, and worse with my last name. I named her Xiomara Janelle. Janelle was my parents' daughter who died at 3 of leukemia before they adopted me and my sister.

[Kirsten]

Well, when we started this process many moons ago- we had thought we were going to change our child's name to one that we picked. We even bought all the baby naming books, talked about family names etc. As our journey has now stretched into three years, it has giving me tons of time to research, listen and learn. I belong to forums/groups from all sides of the adoption triad and through them my whole way of thinking kind of changed. It was a gradual process, and I'm not sure I knew it was happening- until we received our referral of a gorgeous baby girl.

Our agency called us, and we immediately asked what her given name was. When we heard the name, two things came to mind. First neither the first or middle name had made out short list. Second, there was no way were going to change it. I can't explain why, but something in us just took over and we knew we couldn't/shouldn't change it. Here's our way of thinking...it's part of her and in essence by changing her name, it can be construed that we are saying something about her is not good enough. I've heard enough adoptees mention coping with feelings of rejection and feeling as if they were not "good enough" for their birth parents to parent. Changing their birth name seemed to magnify this for many of them. I guess we decided to go with putting our daughter's potential feelings about changing her name over our desire to select a name for her.

This is a very personal decision though, and I think every family has a right to consider all aspects and make the best decision for your particular family. It's an emotional thing, and hopefully your heart will lead you to the right choice as ours did for us.

Best,

Kirsten

[cr653]

hi!
we had a name all picked out with reasons for the choices, etc. our plan was to use our child's birth name as a second middle name. however, once we saw our child ( a toddler) and the name we loved the birth name! it even fit all our "reasons". thus making this child even more "ours" in our minds. we even choose to keep not only the first name but also the middle name as we discovered it means "provider". neat, huh?! God provided a family for our child, and a child for our family! Any how, the middle name we originally choose is a combination of both my middle name and dh's middle name so i will fit that in there somehow.
you might want to have fun "choosing" then decide what to choose when the time comes.

of course, if you already have children becareful.... our youngest is confused thinking were adopting 2 kids now...one with the name we thought we'd use and a child with the new "and improved "name. lol!
cr653