Chinese names

too funny! but you made me think of doing it too. hehe

Love the tattoo idea. Very symbolic. For now, I wear a mah jong tile bracelet to "keep" her with me until we can be together. We are using Sophia Elizabeth as her name. Possibly Sophia Grace, but more than likely Sophia Elizabeth. We want her to have a personal name, chosen just for her. Somehow the thought of continuing a name from the orphange just doesn't feel right to me...makes me sad in a way. I think its great for those of you who are incorporating her name into her new American name. My ancestors are from Russia, and I had always thought about changing my name to incorporate one of our Russian names(they were lost at Ellis Island since my relatives didn't speak English and the joker checking them in didn't have the patience to try and read the paperwork, so we got the name of the guy in front of us!). But, in the end, I kept the name my parents chose for me, because they chose it to be special for me. That is whay I want to do for my little girl. Choose a name that suits just her. If we see her and she isn't a Sophia, then we will roll with it and choose a name that fits. In the end, I think whatever name we all choose will be thourghly chewed apart when they are teens and yelling, "EWWWW! Why did you choose this name?!? I want to be named SO and SO!?!" hee hee And you know what? I can't wait!

One more thought on keeping your daughter's chinese name. I've kept in contact with the other girls adopted from the same orphanage and at the same time even though we live many miles apart. We call them my daughter's Chinese cousins. They all share a part of their names. It is Chinese tradition that the grandfather name all of the grandchildren and usually one of their characters is the same so all of the cousins would have 3 characters: Family name, that generation's name and then the individual given name. So even though we dropped the family name (usually the town where the orphanage is), we've kept the second and third characters.

Elaborating on what SofiasMom(great name by the way!) said, I have a dear friend Vicki, who is Chinese, but grew up until she was 8 in Vientam in a refugee camp and then came to the states. She legally changed her name when she got here to an American first name, no middle name and kept Duong as her last name. Now, her two daughters have American first names, their grandpop chose their middle names, Gia for both, which is listed on their birth certificates. He then chose their Chinese names that only family calls them. They both speak English and Cantonese. Just thought I would share! Liz

llau, I think it's really sweet you wear a bracelet to keep your daughter with you. I have a crucifix I wore all the time that I never removed except to clean it since I was 19 years old...(Ohmi--that's for almost 20 years I've worn that cross...I just realized that!) Anyway, Russell (my husband) and I have chosen to do Lydia's room in Amy Brown fairies. So when I found an Amy Brown fairy charm I just had to have it. I removed my cross and it's in my jewlery box for the first time since I bought it. I've resolved to wear the fairy pendant until Lydia is with me. Then I'll put it in her keepsake box I'm making for her and I'll replace my crucifix. It may sound silly...but it makes me happy/

I wanted to add 2 things: 1. We're adopting in the 2 1/2 - 3 year old range. Since she'll will be very used to her name we feel compelled to keep it... 2. We've actually decided on a name!!! I know this really isn't what this thread is about, but I've finally convinced (or worn down ;) ) DH.... :D (We've been talking about it for 8 months now!) Just wanted to share with y'all.... [FONT=Book Antiqua]

Charleigh Victoria

[/FONT] Somehow it seems much more real when we can call her Charleigh instead of "the baby." :) Happy in GA! Brandy

That is something I hadn't thought about before! What a cool idea! I would love to hear more names! Does anyone know of any Chinese names that start with the letter "E"? Just curious.

Well I can attest to a long name...I have a double first name and a double last name (and I love it, my fathers and mothers last name I use - but no hypen)..so my daughter too will have a long name too, her "first" chinese name, Pei which I love and a Catholic (christian) name for baptismal reasons and a double last name, my maiden name (my fathers last name) and my husbands last name....he too has a double first name and a double last name hahaha.. The truth is a name is a very important part of who you are. Names for the most part are chosen for special reasons...I would love to name my daughter Pei Mara (Chinese name), because Mara is my nickname and my mothers, which was given to us by my maternal grandfather (passed on). It is also a famous Venezuelan aboriginal, who symbolizes strenght etc....and my mother was born there (Italian immigrants), but my husband knew a Mara and has bad memories so he doesn't like it for that reason...so names so have an impact hahaha... so in my opinion keeping her real chinese name would be a GREAT GIFT!! I thank my parents for my name and the reason for it....even though it totals 29 letters hahaha.... cheers

[url]http://www.babynamenetwork.com/origin.cfm?origin=Chinese[/url] [url]http://www.aboutbabynames.com/chinese_baby_names.php[/url] [url]http://www.babynameguide.com/categorychinese.asp?strCat=Chinese[/url] [url]http://www.babynamesdirectory.com/chinesebabynames.htm[/url] These are all sites that have Chinese Baby Names. I was looking specifically for the place I found Xin Qian, but can't find it. I have never come across a Chinese name that starts with E, but that doesn't mean they don't exist... There are baby name books that specialize in international names...I know that Books A Million sells one as I've seen it at their store...but we'd already picked Xin Qian so didn't purchase it. We want Lydia to have a name that was given to her by her parents. Ideally we hope her birthparents gave her and left her a name...if so we'll keep it as her middle name. If not, I'll take her orphanage name. DH and I were both going to change our middle names to reflect Lydia's culture, but now we think just me...we are discussing possbility trying for a boy in a couple of years and if we do, Russell will take a middle name to reflect his culture. We are hoping Vietnam will open again and to give Liddy a brother named Simon. :cool:

Well as I've posted before a name is very special and for the most part it has great meaning. My name may be very traditional "Maria Antonietta" but there is meaning to my name, born on my maternal great grandmother's birthday and that was her name, and my paternal grandmother is named that too. My name is made up of Mary (the mother of Christ Jesus) and Antonietta (Antonia) is the female version of Antonio (Anthony) who is my patron Saint (San Antonio di Padua), and we are faithful Catholics so you know...so it really depends on you. I am Canadian and well I am known as an Italo-Canadese (not just Canadian). Here in Toronto we are VERY MULTICULTURAL and we keep to our heritages for the majority. It is great being Canadian but to have the traditions and languages our families have is very important to us (and I speak about my family and all those I know...in general of course). Just looking at my own family, immigrants from Italy to Venezuela, Argentina, France...Canada...and we all remain true to where we come from BUT with add that bit of France, that bit of Venezuela, and that bit of Canada...and my husband is Uruguayan so hey he fits right in hahaha...SOOOO Ņ..my daughter for all the reasons I could think of deserves in my mind to have part of who she is remain with her (hey no offence to anyone who doesn't agree..gotta be careful how people read what you are saying). She will keep her name and she will have my fathers last name and my husbands fathers last name...even if it makes it really long. Mine is 29 letters Double first name and double last name (don't take on my husbands last name)....and my husbands is just like mine with double both names Plus my husband and I will learn as much Mandrin as we can, our children "God-willing" will already be tri-lingual (Italina, Spanish and English) so if we have bio-children, we want them to learn "Chinese" with their sister as well...She for sure will be the best speaker in comparison to me, because I can't handle all those languages I already speak ItaloSpanglish hahahahahaha...but WE WILL TRY our hardest...And go to China when we can and incorporate it via literature, songs, tv, decorations (we love asian art work and decor). It is true as my husband said, we do live in Canada, but thank goodness we are multicultural and our neighbours are from ALL OVER THE GLOBE...wider acceptance here....(not perfect but pretty good). It is yes a very personal decision and whatever decision we make will be the right one...hey keeping the name but not calling her Chinese name is another idea....at least legally she still has it and doesnt have to go through the long process to change it. Here it is a ғhastle, I know I was thinking of adding my confirmation name ԓLUCIA to my name, since my mother couldnԒt have a third child I took on this name toobut looking at all the paperwork and what I had to do and the letters I had to writeŅwell I decided not to, but I let my maternal grandmother know that I took on her name too!! AND MAN WAS SHE HAPPY!! So both of my nonnaӒs are so happy that I love my name because it is a part of them..think IԒm kidding..every time I go to the retirement home and my grandmother Maria Antonia, introduces me to a new person she always says This is my namesake, my granddaughter (Maria Antonietta)..YEAH WE ARE NUTSӅso I can say that a name is not just a name. CheersŅ :) sorry for explaining again..but i forgot i responded to this post

Hi All, How fun to read all the naming decisions. I think it's a blast to think of names--and you are alll working so hard on getting your children, you deserve to have some fun. I had actually stumbled across our daughter's name while looking at Chinese baby pictures online. For about 12 months before she was home, I referred to her as Lilianna Mei. I got a lot of feedback from people--all suggesting that we wait to name her, wait to see her picture, that we consider her orphanage name etc. Well, we stuck with the name--and since she's been home--we've had a lot of compliments on it. We didn't keep her orphanage name---and I am slightly worried about it. However, her name wasn't that personalized. Our daughter's orphanage is small and all the girls in the past 3 years have been named "Zheng Li _____" So in our group it was Li Ming, Li Ping, Li Xi, Li Wei etc. So, I'm hoping that since we spelled Lilianna--with Lili (what her ayi's called her) it's considered a meaningful connection. What do you all think? take care, Melissa

HEY PRETTY COOL!! That is a good way to link it. Don't feel "bad" or "worried", I've read a lot and many take away the orphanage name and keep the Chinese name...so not to worry. Do it the way you said .... so I guess Lilianna fit JUST PERFECT. Cheers

We haven't adopted "yet" but are going to from China once I turn 30. We are going to name her middle name "Sue" after my mom and then ad "An" (chinese for Peace) after Sue. :)

Here is a site I like: [url]http://www.babynology.com/chinese/[/url] Mary

Sorry for being late here. Here is one of the suggestion for chinese baby names