What's In A Name?

As some of you may know, we were not at all expecting to be matched with a little girl.  It may seem odd to those who know a little about Chinese adoption, but there are also lots of "waiting" boys -- precious boys who usually wait longer because most families want to adopt a little girl.  We indicated we would be open to either gender and since there are so many more families waiting to be matched with girls, we thought for sure our first little one would be a boy.  We had lots of boy names in mind but did not have a list of names we like for girls!

In China, children are named with the family surname, generational name and then first name, in that order.  The first name can represent a wish for their future or characteristic of the child.  Children in orphanages usually all have the same surname, which is one that represents the orphanage and/or area they live in.  The generational name is the same for all children brought in to the orphanage that year.  The first name is given by a worker or director of the orphanage.  Our girl was named Dang Hong Yan by her orphanage.  From what I can tell, Dang which would be the surname of all children from her orphanage, means party (as in political party?).  Hong is the generational name and means red, popular or bonus.  And Yan means swallow, as in bird.  The tricky part is the Chinese characters can mean different things, depending upon which characters they are with so I may be way off base.  So, I am going to ask a Chinese friend to translate the actual characters and combination for me.

In the past, adoptive families would give their Chinese children entirely new names.  It was thought best to fully "Americanize" them as soon as possible.  That view has changed and many adoptive parents and SW's now believe it's best to keep your child's culture alive so they have a link to their past.  Most parents now give their children new first names and keep their given name as their middle name.  But some parents feel that their name was given to them by an orphanage worker and has no significant meaning.  Others feel like this may be their only chance to name a child and want to use a family name or one or two that have special meaning to them.   Some try to incorporate the given name in to the first name.  And a few keep the name entirely intact and just add the family surname.

We have talked about this quite a bit and discussed it with family, friends and other adoptive parents.  We had to remind ourselves that this is Texas -- there is not much diversity in the area we live and the Asian families we do know all use "American" first names.  It might be different if we lived somewhere like San Francisco or Seattle, but it would be very frustrating to grow up in Texas with a name that no one can pronounce or spell.  So, we have decided to give our girl a new first name and keep her Chinese name as her middle name.  That way if she decides when she is older she wants to use her given name she can do so.

We have been asked by many what her name will be, but still have not decided on one.  We are fortunate to have pictures of our girl and know a little about her personality, which will make choosing her name easier.  We also need to pick a name that works well with her Chinese name.  We do have a list and have it narrowed down and hope for something to "click" soon, and when it does, we'll let you know!