EE Kids' names

We changed all of our children's names. Each one for different reasons. Our first son had a horrible name given to him by his birthparents (it meant "worthless"). The orphanage workers wanted us to change it. Our first daughter was an Olga -- one of four in her group. So the caregivers had called her by her last name her whole life. Our next two children had names that were just given to them by someone working at the hospital. And, being older, we asked our fifth child what he wanted and he emphatically wanted to change his name. The transition was easy for all of them. None of the younger children even remember their original names and when we told them what they were -- they did not "want weird names like that" ...:eyebrows:

This is a personal decision for each family. Some changed the names completely, some didnot change the name and some kept some part of their name. We choose a name before we chose an agency, but as it turned out, the middle name that we chose was the same as the birth given name.

My boys picked their 'new' American names and I kept their Russian names as their middle names. When they talk to each other they still use their Russian names, but when talking in English, they always respond to their American names. They were teenagers when adopted, so they were able to discuss what they wanted and I went along. One of them used his Russian name when he was unhappy with me early on but he hasn't done it in months. I have also given them nick names which is what we use around the house. I would not have had a problem if they had wanted to keep their Russian names either. Pete Pop to four great kids.

That... is... HILARIOUS!!! I spit coffee on my screen reading that. The "worthless" thing pisses me off though. :(

We kept their names and added/changed their middle names. Our daughter's name is spelled the same way and English (but pronounced differently and we kept the Polish pronounciation). Our son's name is very Polish/EE but the short form is very catchy and cool in English, so it is working great. They were 4 and 8 at the time of adoption. We felt that this was all they had from their past and it would be selfish of us to want to change. I think kids this young do not really know what they want, and asking them is not always in their best interest. However, if they had potentially embarassing names (such as "Tania" which means "cheap" in Polish), we would have probably changed.

7 EE kiddos later and honestly it doesn't matter which way you go. Doesn't matter how old they are either if you change their name. Your choice. Our girls mostly kept their names but phoneticallly pronounce them differently than their native tongue. Irina, Yana and Alyona. Now, the boys we changed some names but not all. Max(formerly Murat), Bojan(formerly pronounced Boyana), Alex(formerly Alexander...aka "Sasha"), and then Nik(& yes, that was his Russian name on his birth cert. spelling & all). So as you can see, it varies. It will not scar them for life either way. I knwo some folks worry themselves to death if they change a child's name. I have friends who adopted teens and they let them pick the American names out for themselves. So, no matter how old you are, you can still change a name. Keep in mind, your kid has to be comfortable w/ answering questions at school as they are older. My kids don't mind b/c pretty much the whole community knows our story & the adoptions. Been in the paper and things. The adoptions at the school aren't brought up. Only in middle school have some of my kids gotten the "those aren't your "real" parents speech. Urghh. In our house, if we can yell the full name, then it's a good name---LOL. Now, some of my girls have complained about their names and Yana went through a week of being called Nicole(her middle name). That quickly ended though. Good luck whatever you decided. Take care,

Our son was named Sergey. At first we thought about using it as a nickname and calling him Surge, but that brought up the situation of later having to explain it to others. We didn't feel that Sergey would have been a good name for him, especially when he hit middle school. We named him after my father who died when I was 13 and we gave him my middle name. My Grandfather died while we were in Russia on our second trip. When we returned we asked my Grandmother what my Grandfather's middle name was and it was Issac. John Issac would have made a great name as well for him as well since it would have incorporated both Old and New Testiments. By the way, my Grandmother didn't like the name Issac and I can't say what she said about it when she told us here.