[josiah1112]

My future son is 2 years old. I realize that by age 1
babies know their names. Due to this we are thinking of
keeping his first name as his middle and calling him by both this name and the name we will give him.

My question is: have any of you had the foster parents
call them by their soon to be new name and at what
point(if ever) would this be appropriate? I understand
that there are uncertainties with international adooptions
so they may not okay this. Any input on this would
be appreciated!

[cr653]

congratulations on the recent referral for a little boy!
i LOVE toddler aged kids!
anyhow,
our agency encourages us to let then know our choosen name for the children as the caregivers will then call the little ones by that name (or at least that is the theory ). they also encourage us to send pictures so our children/babies get to "know" us a bit.
im thinking an agency will do all they can to help acclaimate a child to his new family. maybe due to uncertainty the fm or caregiver may be told to wait until a certain point before slowly incorporating the child's new name. but maybe they will start right away.
if your not sure how your fm/caregiver and/or agency truely handles this you could call your son his familiar name for a few weeks, a combination of his "new" name with the familiar name for a few weeks then slowly just his "new" name.

again,
congratulations!

cris

[DenhamLady]

Transitioning into the new name by using both for a while is a great idea, but be careful to make sure you are transitioning from the right name!

I'm going to have to tell on myself here-
When I went to visit the girls, I found out that the FM is using their MIDDLE names as their call names. It totally threw me off. I had gotten to know these girls by the name that I thought they were using. I wanted to wait to see their little personalities before I chose new first names.

I honestly can't tell you how confused I was with 2 girls who look almost exactly alike and ALL these extra names floating around. "Alejandra can roll over- so watch out!" "Daniela is quieter and more sensitive" Hmm... Was that Emilia or Marilyn who can roll over?

Gee! Mentally, I simply knew them as just Emilia and just Marilyn NOT Emilia Alejandra and Marilyn Daniele. By the end of the visit, I could tell you who was who by either name or both- but jeez! somebody shoulda warned me they use middle names there!

[resabelle]

Our daughter came home at 18.5 months. Her birth name was Thania Amanda (pronounced Tanya). We decided to name her Amanda Marie...

We asked that she be called Amanda but the foster family called her Thania. When we picked her up; we called her Thania Amanda but she never responded. When we called her Amanda, she did. It was as if she knew that was her name.

Regardless, it was no problem for her to adjust. Congratulations on your son!