Would you change your adopted childs name?
I know many people whom when adopting an infant out of foster care or from another country will change the child's name. I have also met some people who have adopted an older child and, with the childs understanding/consent, and sometimes excitement, will change the child's name. Some kids who have had rought backgrounds find this experience to be their new start on life.
But what about all the other times? When a child is 2, 3, or 4 and knows their name, but you want to change it. It is foreign and hard to pronounce, you want to distance them from the name for emotional reasons, or you feel that it doesnt fit the child or your family. Do you legally change the childs name, or just give them a nickname and use it instead. Do you wait untill they are old enough to make the decision themselves?
Just curiosity, more than anything; I was adopted and am hoping to adopt.
We have done name changes of our foster sons when we adopted them. In one case (10 yr old) we just added a name to his original name that he liked, and dropped his birth middle name. The other son (6 yr old) we switched his middle and his first name because all of my other children have Biblical first names, but we still call him by what was his first name. We gave each boy the additional name of Christopher, because that is an eastern European tradition, and our "homegrown" children all have Christopher or a feminine form of Christopher in their names. Now our last foster to adopt son is 16, and we are changing his name completely, with his consent. Why? He has the same name as our 10 year old! LOL
You will be this child's parent. If the child's name is hard to pronounce, you don't want to be tripping over it forever. So perhaps Anastasia could become simply Anna. And if you need the distance emotionally or for safety (another consideration for our 16 year old), then you make the distance. You, of course, will consider the best needs of the child. Remember children are VERY resilient, and very adaptable.
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