What is in a name?

How many times have you heard "I hate my name, or I love my name." A person's name has a life long impact on an individual, being a big part of their identity. Both of us were named after someone in our family so we take great pride in our name. Choosing a name is exciting but also anxiety provoking. Just think of the importance of that one seemingly small decision. There are many things to consider when thinking about a name: sound and compatibility, unfortunate rhymes or connotations, the meaning behind the name, just to name a few.

Now, with the variable of the child being adopted there are even more issues that need to be considered. Since our daughter will be born in a different country/culture, keeping her birth name is another way to help preserve a part of her past, her culture, and her identity BEFORE we became her parents. You might wonder who gives our daughter her birth name? Well 70% of the children in the orphanages are found in a public setting (the child being purposely left in a location where they know the child will be found) with the other 30% of the children taken to the orphanage by an extended family member. We hope that we are able to keep the name she was given as her first name, however if her birth name isn't received well here in the states we will at least keep that as her middle name. If we have to go this route we would like to find another Ethiopian name to give her and we feel that once we see her picture her name will easily come to us. Right now our daughter is known as "Baby D."

“Don't forget your history nor your destiny" ~ Bob Marley