Adoption Carnival II: Names
Carnival, Feature — By Marcie on October 7, 2009 at 8:52 pmI grew up dreaming of the fairy tale family…I remember distinctly telling my best friend when I was in 8th grade that I would marry a red-head, specifically the one I was drooling over as he played Little League Baseball in front of me. I was the hired scorekeeper but I preferred to check out the boys instead.
That particular red head did end up becoming my husband many, many years later. But, between that ball game and our wedding day there were many times that I imagined what our children’s names would be…Would we name our children family names like Logan or Margaret after grandparents or choose trendy ones like Madison or Jayden?
But, I never imagined that our children would come to us with names. In all honestly though, I would never have it any other way. I love our children’s names because they have such meaning and history. Their names help make up who they are.
Our oldest son was born in Russia and we believe his birth parents both named him shortly after birth. His first name was and still is Alexander but they called him Sasha, the nickname for Alexander. We kept the name and added his grandfather’s middle name.We call him AJ because Alex/Alexander is so common in the US.
When we adopted our second son from Guatemala we were not fond of his given name but knew we had to keep part of his name or his birth mother’s name. So, we took his surname, Agustin, and made it his first name. We added my father’s name as his middle name and he too is another AJ. He goes by Gus.
After we named Gus we realized that we had given both boys the same initials, the middle names of both of our fathers, and part of their birth parents. To us it means everything because we feel we have tied everything together.
Tell us about names this month…How did you name your children? Did they come to you with names? Did you change them? Did your parents change your name? Do you not feel connected to your name?
Basically, what is in a name?
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29 Comments
I wrote I see you’ve gone and changed your name again..
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I’m excited to read everyone’s posts!
http://blog.billigmeier.org/2009/10/whats-in-name.html
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This is a great topic. I’ve posted mine at http://73adoptee.blogspot.com.
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I’m not an adoptive parent, but played along like you suggested!! : ) I remember when you were coming up with Gus, love it!
Steph
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I’m there. Better late than never.
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Naming my chilren was a daunting task each time.
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http://somebodyneedsanap.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/naming-a-child/
Playing along….
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I have only one son and well this might tickle your funny bones
I was determined that his first name would be ” Joshua” but I thought about Joshua James, Joshua Paul and so goes the story!
Well to our surprise he was born on my father’s birthday and his father’s middle name let’s say was Lee for the safety and mine was Lee and His Grandfathers both of their names was Lee in the middle as well, guess what he was Joshua Lee named after father,2 grandfathers and his mother as well too! and aunt last name was Lee as well!
He married into a family of Lee’s as well!
I almost know one of his children will be ?? Lee!
Just wanted to play the game too!
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You can find my contribution at
http://osolomama.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/adoption-and-names-a-rose-by-any-other/
Great topic!
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I joined in with “It’s Who You Know” about how important names are to me as an adoptee. It’s at http://www.PeachNeitherHereNorThere.blogspot.com
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We took Noah Andrew which we liked and added Gabriel from his given name of Angel Gabriel to arrive at Noah Andrew Gabriel. That name change played havoc with the insurance company for a year afterwards. They never told us what the problem was with our insurance submission that kept getting denied. Finally got it out of them after 18 months and had to make a call to my old employer to get it fixed.
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Blessed mama to Ethiopian twins plus 3 more beautiful children.
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I’m a blessed mama to 5 children including twins from Ethioipa. Naming my children has been an honor.
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I posted a somewhat different take at
http://transracial.adoptionblogs.com/weblogs/racially-neutral-names
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Just wrote a post about naming our Vietnamese sons.
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http://amazonadoptee.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/a-rose-by-any-other-name/
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We thought Leah Helen–an “L” for a favorite grandparent, and “Helen” for two great-grandmothers. We expected we name her with her first-parents, but she was born before we even met them. They named her Leandra (her first-mom’s middle name, which shortens to “Lea” very easily) Helen (a first-great-grandmother) Johnson (her first-parents last names–and my maiden name). All we had to do was tag on our last name and call it a day!
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