Names

We occassionally get asked questions like, "What are you planning to name your baby?" or "Will your baby already have a name?" So, I thought I'd give you a little insight into the significance of Ethiopian names and our plans for naming our little one(s)...

Our baby will probably already have at least two names, carefully chosen by his or her birth family or by the care center staff, if the baby is abandoned. Ethiopian infants are not normally named for several days after their birth. Some speculate it's a wait-and-see approach since infant mortality is so high and even in the pioneer days in the USA parents waited several months to make sure the child would survive before giving him or her a beloved and carefully chosen name.

Our child is already losing so much of their culture and identity by leaving Ethiopia, thus we both think that honoring our child and his or her birth family through their name is important. We also want to add significance to their name with names we choose. We're not sure yet if we'll keep his/her Ethiopian name(s) as first/middle names, keep one name or both, or add a first or middle name. One thing is for sure...our baby will probably have a pretty long name :-)

We're just starting to look through the "55,000 baby names" book...yikes...that's going to take awhile. Mark and I are going to pick our favorites and then since we have the luxury of learning more about our baby through his/her story and photo, before we have to decide on names, we'll have time to choose the perfect name for them. Stay tuned...