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As we waited for our newest daughters to come home, we did a lot of thinking about their names. Since they are older girls, we decided we’d really like to keep their Ethiopian names as their first names. After all, they’ve had the names for a decade each, more or less. It seemed rather presumptuous to bring them home and start immediately calling them something else.
However, we did think we might like to choose them each a middle name that is more Americanized, so that they might have another legal name to use at some point if they chose to. We tossed around lots of ideas. But again, since the girls are older, it really seemed like they should have input regarding even the middle names we chose. So we decided to wait until they came to America to discuss it with them.
Our older Ethiopian daughter has a Bible name that is fairly common in the U.S. and it is one she likes well. Another neat thing we learned is that the nickname people call her in Ethiopia is actually a shorter version of one of the names we were thinking of using as a middle name anyway. So that name seems like a logical choice for her middle name.
The name decision is more complicated for our younger daughter. We learned that the name she has been using for the past few years is not the name her mother gave her at birth, and she actually likes her original name better than her current one. However, she told us the other evening that she would like an American name too– but as a first name, not a middle name.
We are currently hashing out our options. Do we use her current Ethiopian name (the one everyone is used to calling her) or her old (harder-to-pronounce) one? Do we use it as a first or a middle name? Then which American name do we pick, and do we use it instead of her Ethiopian name? I am so used to calling her by her Ethiopian name that I can’t quite wrap my mind about giving her an American name as a first name and then not using her Ethiopian name. But in talking with her, it seems that is what she would prefer.
To make it even more complicated, she expresses absolutely no preference about WHICH American name to use, as long as it is ‘American’. She tells me I should choose, just like I chose with the other kids. Oh, my….it kind of makes my head hurt…I have decided it is much easier to name a baby!
Related links
Naming your child, part one
Naming your child, part two
Baby naming trends
At least she’s not already determined to be a Britney or a Paris!
How much time is there to decide before something must be engraved in stone?
What does her Ethiopian name mean? Is there a comparable American one?
I’d like to have it figured out by the time we re-adopt in U.S. courts, probably in November or December. And yes, her Ethiopian name means ‘rose’ which I’ve always liked as a middle name. But I’m not so thrilled with ‘Rose’ as a first name, though….we’ll have to think about it….
Mary
what a dilemma. names are fun. i know you’ll pick something great.
I looked up different names that mean “flower” and found these:
Heather, April, Leilani, Jasmine, Flora, Ivy, Alyssa, Amarilla, Celandine, Eleanor, Lily, Margherite, Violet.
I bet there are tons more. Yay!
You could go with a Bible name for her too that is also American. We did this with my children since my husband is Ethiopian and wanted our kids to be able to go into either culture and have a name that was “common”. They like having a name that can be pronounced with or without a certain emphasis… I am not sure if this helps in anyway at all. You are so full of wisdom that I am sure you will pick the perfect name for her.
Here are a few pretty Rose variants:
Rosa
Rosemary
Rosalyn/Rosalind
Sharon (as in “Rose of”)
This is my favorite naming site, it gives you history of the name and you can click “Related names” to find variants of a name or meaning:
http://www.behindthename.com
Could you guys pick a few American names you like and then let her choose which she likes best? Or would that complicate it too much?!
I’ve known children as young as 2, adopted from China, who refused to accept the English (Canadian/ American) name their parents chose for them. In general their Chinese names had been kept as a middle name, so it was still a legal name.
My daughter, on the other hand, accepted quite readily to be renamed (she was almost 5 at adoption). Her Chinese name was JianMiao, and in the Chinese fashion she was called MiaoMiao. Initially I called her MiaoMiao, then used her Canadian name and MiaoMiao together, and eventually just the Canadian name. I would have liked to continue using MaioMiao as a nickname or “pet name”, but after only a few months in Canada, she told me to stop calling her that. “I’m not a cat!” she said! But JianMiao is one of her middle names. I wasn’t fond of the sound of it, but learned that it means “wonderful creation” and so just had to keep it! For me, meanings are very important, and I’ve tried to pick Canadian names that have significance. Her Canadian first name means “rambunctious” and her Canadian middle name means “sparkling” (because she had sparkling eyes in her referral pictures). Both names suit her to a tee!
For my Ethiopian son, who will also be almost 5 when I go to Addis in October to bring him home, I’m keeping both his Ethiopian names (first and last) as middle names. I was considering using his Ethiopian name, Assegid, as a first name, but it doesn’t shorten well, so ended up deciding to leave it as a middle name. (I haven’t yet discovered its meaning.) The Canadian first and middle names I’ve chosen for him mean “precious gift” and “the Lord is God”. It remains to be seen whether he will take to the new first name or whether he will insist on his Ethiopian name. If he does, I can live with it, and it will be part of his legal name.
Chloe means blossoming or blooming (along the lines of Rose). She was also a Biblical figure – in Corinthians.
MamaGiggles,
Your son will thank you will a million kisses once he’s an American teenager and realizes that but for you he could have been called Assegid.
Mary, are there any girls names that you and your husband both love? You mentioned a few in one of those links – Talia is my personal favourite but they are all beautiful. If your younger daughter wants you to pick a name for her (how sweet!) then I think you should just choose a name that you have always loved. Perhaps her middle names could be the one chosen by her birth mum AND the one everyone has been calling her. That way her full name will represent all the people who have loved and cared for her (her birth family, caregivers/friends (?) and her new family).
Whatever you decide, I’m sure the names you choose will be a perfect fit for both of your girls. Have fun thinking of names!
Wow, but what fun to get to pick someone’s name who’s not a baby.
Our kids just have flat out Ethiopian names that are a bit hard to prounounce, but they have really cool meanings so I don’t mind explaining them.
Your daughter sounds like my brother–as soon as he was old enough to talk, he made it clear that he was *American* and had no interest in his Korean name at all, or Korean flags, or any of the heritage things my parents tried to keep for him.
This may sound silly, but maybe you could pray about what to name her. I’ve run into many people over the years who have a “God Given” name that they came into later in life and it suits them perfectly. They found it, or someone else found it for them in a listening in prayer type of moment.
MamaGiggles,
The root word of the name ‘Asegid’ is ‘mesged’ which means ‘to bow down’ as in for prayer. When this root word is used for a name of a person it means one who makes others bow down to him/her. The female version of the name is Asegedech. These types of names used to be popular during Ethiopia’s feudal times.
Fikru Helebo
http://enset.blogspot.com/
Oh wow!!!! That DOES get complicated!!! What’s the update on this?! Would love to hear what ya’ll decide!!!