[beachykeen]

This is really very minor in the scheme of things, but my husband and I were both wondering about changing a toddler's name. Is that something that most of you have done, or should it not be done after a certain age? This isn't to say that we necessarily would, we're just not sure.

Thanks,

Marcy

[valcox]

I'd like to know that too - Our son is 13months and we expect he will come home around 18/19months. We would like to slightly change his name, but wonder if that's what's best for him.

[annaguat]

We did change names from a 4 and 5 1/2 yr old. I asked the children if they liked the names. Fortunately they were excited. DS changed the pronouncuation of his new name. In the beginning we called them by both their new and old name. They are now teens and are glad we did give them new names and kept their Guatemalan names as middle names or part of their new name. It probably depends on how their Gautemalan names would fit in. anna

[themotheroffive]

Since our little girl came home just short of 3 years old
we were going to keep her name.

When we got to Guatemala we changed our minds and gave her a new name the night before we came home.

We are very happy we did. Within a month she knew her name. Didn't seem to be any problem at all. Naming for us was part of bonding.

[SydneyRN]

Our oldest is also about 13 months old right now and we have decided to change her name and the baby's name. Our agency has informed the foster mom so that she will start using the new names and make it easier on the kids.

[tj'smomma]

Hi-
we met our son when he was 23 months old. His given name was Marvin. we felt the name was too "old" sounding ( only our opinion ), so on the visit trip we started calling him Tyler. We had decided on that name a while ago, before we even accepted his referral as a toddler. He picked up on it very quickly.
When we picked him up 2 months later, we continued to call him Tyler, and have ever sice. We've had no problems with him adjusting to his new name. If you ask him his name he yells Tyler! , and our last name!

[Punkyboo]

For months we had planned on naming our little girl Tia Nicole, but when we got her referral we actually really liked her given name, Madelyn Ruby. But we were still going to name her Tia until we went to visit and asked her in Spanish what her name was and she replied "Madelyn!" Also, my Dad's side of the family is Mexican and when we initially told them we were going to name her Tia (which means Aunt in Spanish) they all asked why since she was not old enough to be an Aunt! So it actually worked out really well for us to scrap the Tia idea and keep her given name.
I do know that in the book "Toddler Adoption, the Weaver's Craft" it states that a child will know their own name around the age of 1 year old. I think it's a personal preference, if it's important to the parents to change the name, I really do believe that kids are very resilient at this age.
Good luck with your decision!
Kathleen

[2nd time round]

Blanca came home at 3 1/2 and her name and an old doll was all she brought with her. Her name was given to her by her parents. Her mother died when she was 3. I didn't have the heart to change her name. A lot of people call her Bianca, and that bothers me, but I always tell her she can be called Melita(her middle) when she gets older if she wants to.

[jjuliejchad]

We were advised by our international doctor here in the U.S. to not change our son's name since he was 3 years old. Once they get past 2 years old they identify with their name and we were told that it should be kept the same. If you change it, then they recommended that you keep it for their middle name and still call them by their birth name for a period of time. Good luck. It is definitely a personal decision and we were lucky that we liked the birth name.

Julie

[crathke]

We brought our son home at 31 months and changed his name from "Ruben" to "Aaron". It took about a week for him to start responding to his "new" name.

A few weeks after he came home, we were having what I call a "Yo no hablo ingles" episode (where he would completely ignore whatever I was saying--as all kids that age will do on occasion). Since I was trying to get his attention, I thought "what the heck" and called "Ruben!"

He got up and came over to me without hesitation and pulled on my arm so I would crouch down to his level. He put his hands on either side of my face and said very decisively, "No Ruben. Aaron." And went back to piling up his Legos.

And that, we decided, settled that.

[cr653]

A few weeks after he came home, we were having what I call a "Yo no hablo ingles" episode (where he would completely ignore whatever I was saying--as all kids that age will do on occasion). Since I was trying to get his attention, I thought "what the heck" and called "Ruben!"

He got up and came over to me without hesitation and pulled on my arm so I would crouch down to his level. He put his hands on either side of my face and said very decisively, "No Ruben. Aaron." And went back to piling up his Legos.

And that, we decided, settled that. [/quote]




courtney,
what an ADORABLE and memorable moment!
i LOVE this little story!

cris....still feeling AWFUL, but trying to keep the preschooler from falling asleep so he'll sleep in a little...
will this flu NEVER end....

ps. why isnt the 'quoted' stuff boxed off or something..

[crathke]

cris--I don't know why the quote wasn't boxed off and it gave me a bit of a start--trying to figure out how my post ended up under your name, LOL

I hope you can get some rest--having a sick child when you're sick yourself is the absolute *worst* and it seems as if this year there are fifteen hundred different versions of the "crud" going around. (I'm on week three of the hacking cough variety, myself)

[WVUMom418]

Our little girl was 14, almost 15 months old when we brought her home. We started calling her by her new name while we were in Guatemala. I really think because the whole English language thing is so new to them that she didn't notice a difference in us calling her by a new name because everything she heard was new. Within 1 week she was responding to her new name.

It's funny, she's been home almost 2 months and she responds "correctly" to everything we say so she obviously understands us. But so far the only thing she's saying back to us is Mama, Dada, Thank You, Kisses, Love You and Up. I think it's ver wierd that she is saying two word phrases before the normal one words.

[lazycactus]

Our son came home at the age of 3 years and 9 months. His birth name was difficult to pronounce (even for him) -- Estuardo -- in fact he kept saying that his name was Etalo so... to make his life a little easier (and I know all about strange-sounding names...) we gave him a name that is written and almost sounds exactly the same in our trilingual family -- English (DH), Spanish (DS) and French (moi!): Daniel.

At first we called him Daniel Estuardo, then since his foster mom called him Estuardito, we called him Danielito (same ending), then we finally used only Daniel. He knows all about Estuardo -- we didn't try to hide it or ignore it -- and really prefers his "new name" given by his "new papi and new mami"...

Kateri AKA Katerina, Catherine, Kathy, Kate, Katy, Cat, etc. etc.

[busterleroy]

We changed our son's name, he came home at 2 and everything has been wonderful. Whenever he sees himself in a mirror he didn't anticipate ( like in the aisles of Target or somehting) he gets really happy and shouts JOEY!!