Choosing a Name

Most people in the online adoption groups, it seems, give an American first name and keep the Chinese name given by the orphanage as a middle name. This is meant to preserve her Chinese identity and show that you honor her background, etc.

I found a different perspective on an adoption blog, though, from Chinese parents who have adopted from China. They chose a new Chinese name for their adopted daughter because, "Even though [she] has a Chinese name, that name has no particular heritage other than that of the orphanage/city in which she was born."

It seems that children in a given orphanage will all have the same assigned "surname," and the nannies will choose a given name. In this respect, the names on their Chinese documents are actually a marker of abandonment, which would not be honorable to the Chinese, but in fact, would be considered very bad luck and emphasize that there isn't a family lineage.

Because of this, I like the idea of choosing a new Chinese name, as this family did. But I understand that it is nearly impossible for an ignorant American to do. (Check out this article:
http://www.chinasprout.com/html/naming.html) So maybe it's just a bad idea.