The Name Game

When I was pregnant with Doug and Katie, I wanted to pick out names as soon as we found out their sex. I couldn't stand not calling them by their names. I feel the same while waiting for this child. As soon as we decided to adopt, I started thinking about names.

One day I suggested "Zoe", and Jerry loved it. Later when I said I wasn’t sure, it was too late, because he and the kids were already calling her Zoe--and now we’ve all been doing it for months. I do like the name. I just wasn’t sure if a Greek name was appropriate for a Chinese kid. I also worried it was too trendy.

Our plan is to use her Chinese name as her middle name. But then I realized she would be the only kid in our family not named for anyone. Won’t that bother her? Especially as the only adopted kid? Doug has the middle name Joseph, after my father-in-law. Katie is Kathleen Marie. Kathleen for my mom, and Marie is my mother-in-law’s name and my middle name.

So I started thinking about family names to use as a middle name for Zoe. My grandmothers are Adele Louise and Gertrude Irene. Jerry’s grandmothers are Molli (aka Millie) and Irene (I have no idea about their middle names). Linda is using Molli for her baby, and Jerry wasn’t real close to his Grandmother Irene.

There are also our sisters, Linda and Julie, but neither of those sounds right with Zoe. (One night I dreamed I combined Julie and Linda, and we named her Linlie! I kind of like it, but the rest of the family is set on "Zoe"). Linda doesn’t have a middle name, and Julie’s is Ann.

So...I like the sound of Zoe Ann, Zoe Irene, and Zoe Adele. If we use one of those, I guess we will use her Chinese name as a second middle name, but it’s a lot of names for one little girl!

I also keep coming back to the idea that if we like her Chinese name, we might just want to keep it. We're all attached to the idea of Zoe, but our daughter is probably pretty attached to the name she's been called her whole life.