A child’s name is a loving gift that we bestow upon a child. Naming a child carries with it a big responsibility.

Most of us know people who dislike their names for various reasons. We want a child’s name to describe who he is, and we want the name to be representative of the love we feel for him. Few people purposely choose a name that they despise for their children.

A name can be a gift from either the adoptive parents or the birthparents. For some lucky children, the name is a gift... more

One controversial area of naming your child really surprised me – naming your older adopted child. I just assumed that when people adopted a child who was old enough to talk and identify himself by name, the child kept his name. Apparently that is not the case in many families. See the links under "Related Topics" at the bottom of this post for further discussion of this issue.

The reason I always assumed that a child would keep his name is because he already identifies himself by that name. I could... more

As you can see from the "Related Topics" at the bottom of this post, naming a child who joins your family through international adoption is a hot topic in the adoption community. Some people believe that the child should have an ethnic name that reflects his heritage; other people believe that a child should have an Americanized name so that he will blend into American society.

Which point of view is correct? I do not believe that there is a right or wrong answer here, so you need to do... more

When we were going through our home study, our social worker suggested that we read several books about adoption. I disagreed with many of the suggestions provided in one of the books, but the issue of names was the topic that really got my blood boiling. According to the author, an adopted child should never be given a family name, such as John Smith, Jr., or the name of a beloved relative. The author’s reasoning was that the couple could wind up conceiving in the future and would want to use the family name... more

As I mentioned in my last post, Naming Your Child: Semi-open Adoption, my husband and I never considered asking for input on our son’s name from his then-placing mother. Perhaps we should have done this, but the thought honestly never crossed our minds.

Since this was a semi-open adoption and the placing mother was not going... more

When my husband and I were considering baby names, we never once thought about inviting an expecting mother’s input into the process. If I had known that this was even an issue, I probably would have despaired of ever agreeing on a name since my husband and I could barely come up with a name between the two of us.

It was not until we met my son’s expecting mother face-to-face that I even thought about how she might feel about the baby’s name. Up until that time, the agency stressed that the expecting... more

My husband and I could not agree on a name for a baby boy. While his ideas for girls’ names (mostly names that sounded like porn stars) and my ideas for girls’ names (too “Southern belle,” according to him) were vastly different, we did find enough overlap to select a name – Caroline. Choosing a boy’s name was a completely different matter.

I had three rules for baby names, regardless of gender:

The name could not be gender-neutral (no “Pats” from Saturday Night Live). ... more

My last topic was kind of depressing, so let’s move on to a more fun topic — naming your child.

When my husband and I were waiting to be matched with an expecting mother, we were hesitant to make any plans. We did not want to buy little girl clothing in case we adopted a boy (and vice versa). We did not want to buy gender-neutral summer outfits in case the baby was born in the dead of winter.

The one thing that we knew our baby would need was a name, so we found hours of pleasure, and quite a... more

Ok, a few days ago, I posted my opinions regarding the re-naming of adopted children from foreign countries.

Although I still stand by my opinion that a name is a name...celebrate the culture and don't worry about what others say...there are some very passionate people out there in the adoption community that beg to differ, so I want to share their points of view, as well.

The people I have spoken to in regards to re-naming adopted children state that many times all a child has is their name. That is their one and only connection to what they had...their country,... more

I have been hearing lots of discussion in the chat rooms I frequent regarding naming a child who comes home through international adoption. Seems that some people feel that if the child is an infant, then it's okay to rename the child, but if they're old enough to know their name, then it's not okay.

I'm not too sure that I agree with that.

Now, considering that I am adopting from foster care, my views may not be considered popular, but I still do want to share what I feel about this.

I have a friend, S, who is adopting from Ethiopia. She already has a name picked out, but is always queried about WHY she wants to rename the child... you know... why not celebrate the... more