naming adopted baby

I have a friend named Shani and always though it was an invented name, wondered where it came from! But it's from a book, you say?! :) How old was your daughter when you got her? What was the process for changing her name legally, and all?

My husband and I had originally chosen the name Gage for our son, and now are still tossing around the usability of it. We want a name with special meaning, and Gage means "Pledge", so what do you think? The other names we've been considering are Ethan (#1 choice), Joshua (too popular?) and Elijah (husband isn't thriled about it, but my daughter and I love it). The middle name is going to be James, after my husband, his dad, and his grandfather. Any ideas on other names that might work? We are still open to suggestions, as nothing has really seemed to "fit" yet. I guess it is a good thing that he won't be home for a number of months yet! Renee

'Shani' appears on some lists of baby names as a Swahili/African name meaning 'marvelous'. Lots of variations that are close, like Shana etc. The book where I got the name from was set in Wales so my grandmother assumed the name was Welsh, but I suppose it's not. For the first little while, my husband's mother couldn't quite get the name, due to the popularity of a certain singer, and she called her 'Shania' for quite some time. Anyway, Shaeni was 6 mos old when she came to us, and like I said, we were to choose her name before we'd even met her, which I suppose isn't much different from the name-choosing pregnant parents go thru. We were given no restrictions on choosing her name, but agreed to the birthmother's wish to keep at least one of her given names. A quick note to the other respondent here - I like 'Gage', but does it flow ... 'Gage James'? Joshua is extremely overused, at least around here. Would your husband like 'Elijah' better if he could use the nickname, 'Eli'? 'Elijah James' sounds great.

Hi Babs - I agree about Gage James not flowing, and I don't want to reverse it and name him James Gage and then call him by his middle name. My husband and I both are called by our middle names and it is such a pain to always have to correct people who see our legal name and assume that that is what we are called... especially in school. I also love the way Elijah James sounds, but when I suggested the nickname "Eli", I found out that that is what my husband doesn't care for. I can't win! We will keep looking.

My sister's name is Shaney and my parents got it from a character in the movie Oliver. What's funny is her baby girl's name is Paris. Both of their middle names are Elizabeth.

We finally decided to name our son Aidan James. That way we can call him Aidan or AJ, (which is in reference to his birthmother's name of Ajanel). Now that we finally made the decision, it seems to "fit" his look perfectly. We knew that it would come to us eventually! Renee

Love it !!! Works for you; respects the birthmom; perfect !!!

My sons parents changed his name , I mean he is now their son and it is their right, but I have heard so many adoptive parents keep at least one name, is this true? I just found my son he is fourteen (this is how I knew of his name change) I just want to let you know that if you are thinking of changing your childs name, know that it does come as a shock to the other mother. Just wanted to let you know Hugs Melissa

I always tell my daughter she is the only 'Shaeni' - which she may be ... I always thought it would be hard to be one of a thousand Ashleys or Melissas or whatever is popular at the time. I do find myself always looking for her name, tho, and now I can tell her that somewhere in the world is a mom named 'Shaney' and a daughter named 'Paris' Good luck to you!!!

Hi, My husband and I were still tossing around names when we got the call that our daughter was born and we had to be at the hospital in less than 12 hours to pick her up. We never met her birthmother ( we do send her pictures and letters through the agency). We were told that she chose the name Ebonee Joy. We had decided at the beginning of the adoption process that we wanted our birthmom to pick the middle name and since we didn't get to meet her we kept Ebonee as her middle name. We also like different names, I am Michelle My husband is Tim so we grew up with a millon people having our names, her first name is Fiona. We actually heard a Dj on a Celtic radio show ,while driving to Walmart at 10:30 PM to buy a car seat,with that name and we agreed that we both liked it. Fiona means fair. Which we feel life has become since we brought her into our family.

Hi, When we got the call to bring home our son he was 11 months old! He had his birth name and we were afraid to change it until we arrived to gather him up and bring him home...he had been neglected emotionally so he never knew his 'name' given to him as he was never called it due to lack of attention and so on. DH and I have two bio daughters and with our oldest who is four we had it set she was to be 'Elijah' if a boy...hehe but neither was a boy so it was such a wonderful feeling to be able to give our son that name when we brought him home. We of course had to use the birthname legally for medicals and all until finalization which was 15 months later! He is now officially Elijah Darin Timothy and boy did that feel awesome to read that birthcertificate from the courts! Never a better feeling than to read MY childs name on the piece of paper that one can only imagine is so precious! He is named after my dh and my dad with his two middle names and Elijah was always meant for my first SON! Melissa

As I embark on the journey to bring home my child(ren) through adoption I know that I am in for a wait. I am currently seeking as much knowledge on the subject as possible and trying to concrete and make perfectly stable all aspects of my life so that my child(ren) will enter my home and family as the most important and focused upon as they possibly can be. Anyways I been coming up with some names. I kind of want the names to have a theme or pattern. As I am open to either a boy or girl, multiples, or siblings I have made a list of top 3 boys and girls names...each name with a story, family tie and/or deep meaning! Please let me know what you think. Do they flow? Too overused? Unique? Also how do you choose? Family, religious, theme, rhyming? How old is too old to change the childs name? Names:(my last name is Haley ;) single mom) Boys: Keigan Jeremiah Lawrence..........Girls: Madison Emma Jean Caymen Foree' Josiah.........................Logan Aaliyah Louise Aaron Isaiah Noel................................Arijon Calais Naomi I actually have ten for each (B/G) but i wont harrass you all to that extent :) Good luck to you all in adoption and naming.

I am a possible birthmother. I am going to request that the adoptive parents keep the name that I choose. If the baby is a girl I will name her Madison angela if the baby is a boy I will name him Matthew James or Isaiah Patrick.

We are foster parents of a set of 6 month old twins boy and girl. It looks very promising that these children will be able to be adopted by us. These children are blond haired and blue eyed, but both have decidedly VERY hispanic sounding names. The baby boy's middle name is Juan, but the bmom was calling him John. She told us she wants us to call him JUNIOR. Ughh!!! We are and will continue to call him by his initials AJ. His first name is the name of an Italian pasta dish and sauce. The CW's supervisor said we could continue calling him AJ. Anyway, these babies were severely neglected. When speaking to the bmom, she refers to these babies as "them" or "it". She refuses to call them by their name. When I asked a family memebr what they called AJ, she said "we always just called him little man". Anyway, we are thinking up twin names. I wanted Landon Carter and London ? . Husband hates London. We have been thinking of Emma and Ethan. However he wants to honor his grandmother , who is a truly wonderful person. Her name is Evelyn Mae, both names I hate. His suggestion is name her Evelyn and call her Evie. His grandfather's name was Victor. He passed away 2 years ago and was a spectacular person. We considered naming the baby girl Evelyn Victoria (or Evelyn Victory) and call her E.V. As for the boy , my husband wants to name him Ethan Victor. I want my family name Carter in the name. Here are some of the names we can agree on. Maybe someone can give us some suggestions as to other possible choices or combinations. Landon Carter, Ethan Carter, Ethan Victor, Ethan JAck, Ethan John (John is my husband's middle name and could be called Jack), Ethan Vernon, Vernon, my father in law's name , Ethan Samuel (my F I L's real name is Vernon MArvin, so everyone has always called him SAM.) Love Sam, hate Marvin, could deal with Vernon as middle name. Like Josiah, Elijah, Ellis (another family surname) ,Cayne, Mason, Zane, Trace, Reece, Maxim, Layne (middle name) Miller, Sawyer (but last name is Schroeder) Jeb ,Reid and ALexander. My husband and I love most "old west names". Girls: we like London (I do) Emma, Eden, Audrey, Ava, Reese, Haven (my choice) Malia, Mira (like Miracle) Bella, Alayna, Annaliese, Averi, Maeryn, (my name is Mary, mother in law is Karen, combo of each), Mercy (middle name) Maitland, Malana (long A) , Merritt, Laurel, Gillian and Alia. Please help. I would like to use both of the same initials for the first names, or at least the same initials in either their first or middle names, to distinguish them as twins.

Hi, I like the idea of honoring relatives etc, but chaning the name slightly... I've seen families where there are 3 or more Jameses, and it gets very confusing! I have some names tentativel chosen for when I adopt my child... I've got a few for girls and a few for boys, and I have chosen not to pick the gender of my child. Girls: Olivia Joan (My grandmother was Olive, but I don't like that name, but Olivia is a nice variation. My mum's name is Joan.) Evelyn Dawn (Evelyn is my, my mum's and her mum's middle name, and I thought it would be nice as a first name, nickname Eve. And I just like the name Dawn, it symbolises new beginnings to me.) Lauryn Bandele (My dad's name is Laurence, shortened to Laurie, and Lauryn is a nice variation. Plus I really like the singer Lauryn Hill! Bandele, I'm told, means "born away from home", an appropriate name for an adopted child.) Boys: Vaughn Jesse (My fostersister's middle name is Vaughn, and it's a traditional name in her family. My mum's mother was Jessie. I thought it was nice to have male versions of parts of these women's names. Gabriel Laurence (A male ancestor on mum's side had the middle name Gabriel, and I like it - it's old-fashioned and not very common these days, at least around these parts! Laurence is my dad's name, as I said above.) Joaquin Kai (I've always liked the name Joaquin, and the actor Joaquin Phoenix. It's very uncommon here, though, and I know my son would probably have to keep spelling it out for people. Kai is Hawaiian for Ocean, and I'm a beach-loving surfer so it makes sense.) Harlan Beck (Harlan is a name I just like - I read a book with a character called Harlan, and I've had positive feelings about the name ever since. Beck is kind of funny - my name is Rebecca, and it's shortened to Beck. But Beck is also an Old English name that means brook.) So that's it for now... I can see myself actually naming the child any combination of these names, or even at the last minute changing my mind to something totally unrelated to these names and with no familial meaning, just because it sounds nice - Emily Chynna or something! Rebecca