[sienna5]

Hello.

I have been spending a lot of time debating the idea of changing my adopted child's name (in progress - dossier at consulate). I am adopting from Kazakhstan. Today a discussion about names started in the Kaz forum and I would love to see people from this discussion group weigh in. I want to do what will feel right for my child their entire life - both at times they want to fit in with their classmates and times when they want to connect with their culture/birth family. My current thought is to keep his/her name (either first and middle or first and last as middle with our family name as last) and use a nickname. My brother ("junior" to my dad's name) used a nickname and it seemed to work well. He could change to his legal name or keep his nickname. He has actually done some of both (now 40ish).

If you have some insights about how you feel about your name and any advice to adopted parents on this issue I hope you will post to the discussion at Names on the Kazakhstan board.

Thank you so much for your help. It is so hard to anticipate the future needs of a child and know what is right to do for them.