Renaming an adopted child

I was adopted at 2 and my name was changed, I have no recollection of my name being anything but what it is and if my info is correct I had two other names, one for the first 6 mos thenmy mom gave me up and I was given another by some foster parents that were hoping to adopt me. And then my adoptive parents gave me my name as it stands today. I have no knowledge of the other names so I'd say it did not affect me...but that is just my experience. Jen

We are considering adopting our foster son who is 23 months old.We intend to change his name to something very similar to his original name but his nickname will be the same.

I was adopted at 13 months and almost everything on my birth certificate was changed!

Our kids were 5,4,3&2 at placement. We kept their given first names and changed their middle names to family names so they would have a family connection. The 2 year old probably could have had the name changed with very little or no recollection of the original name but we were uncomfortable with doing so. A lot of that had to do with keeping the 1 thing that the bparents gave them because they'd already lost everything else. While it is a new life, they still have a history that belongs to them if you know what I mean? And we didn't want to take that away from them too. And I know that sometimes, kids want their names changed because their history is not a favorable one and they want to erase the ties to that. There are also situations where the given names are really not nice names in general. So there can be other factors involved. It's such a personal choice though and everyone will ultimately end up doing what feels right for them.

We are in the process of adopting our foster kids. Our son is 4 1/2 (he'll be 5 in February) and our daughter will be 2 in a few weeks. Both of them are getting new names. Our daughter (who will be called Emili) is just fine with the change we just worked her new name into it. We called her Emili- (her birthname). Them we dropped her birthname and it's just Emili now. She's done just fine with it. We intended to continue to all our son by his nickname and just change his name on paper. But he has chosen to be called what we are changing his name to (Jackson). He wants NOTHING to do with his original name. I have a few foster mom friends who've said they had no problems with name changes. One changed their son's name and he was 10 years old. It helps if the child wants a change. Some kids want to keep their names, other's want to change it. I'd say it depends on the child. But with toddlers if you have the orignal name as Karen and you want it to be Jane. You just start calling the child "Jane-Karen". After a month or so you drop the Karen and they should answer to Jane. It also works if you do a game with it. I have my girl sit on my lap we point to me and say "mommy" then I point to her and say "Emili". She picked up on it with in a week.

We renamed both of our sons and they were older at time of placement ( 2 1/2 & 3 1/2 yrs old). We haven't had any issues arise because of renaming them, other than convincing the state that it was in their best interest. We looked at it this way: there were so many negative things associated with their names, so they got a fresh start with adoption as well as new names. And for both of our sons it was also a safety issue.

I wanted to change my son's names, but I felt that one was to old (4) and the other (2) had developmental delays.We changed their middle names.We changed their brother's name who we got when he was nine days old.Another reason we did not change the older kid's names is because my older daughters did not think it was right cause they were to old. Plus, we had called them their birth names since we got them and TPR happened almost a year later, so it was habit.