Brehane and Other Names

My email buddy is leaving to go and pick up her daughter tomorrow- she had emailed me about some book suggestions and I was emailing back. Her daughter has 4 beautiful names- her Ethiopian Name, two chosen names and the families last name, This is always a huge topic of discussion on the Yahoo list and people feel very strongly about it on both sides...either keeping the Ethiopian name or using a chosen name. I think a lot of people do what Heidi is doing and use all of the names and then call the child by their Ethiopian name but allow for flexibility...except the folks adopting infants- many of them seem to change the name and keep the Ethiopian name as a middle name- many- but not all. Since mark and I have really loved naming our children- and have made a real science out of it- lists and comparisons etc...We love talking about it and trying new ones out---even after the baby is born...I am sure this will be fun for us too. I did ask him what he thought the other night about the name..."Mark should we keep the Ethiopian name?" "Only if its not too odd with our name” We think most of the names aren't- and most are quite beautiful...but he doesn't want to feel tied to a name that really - for whatever reason would not work...for instance- at Children's Hospital- I kid you not - there is a women whose name is "Candy Barr". You may have noticed that our web address is "Brehane" (also spelled Berhane) this is a beautiful name that means: my light.

Here are two sites, which offer translations to many beautiful Ethiopian names:

My Ethiopian Name

Ethiopian Names

This is part of the email I wrote to Heidi, my friend about naming our other children:

"All the names are great and I think you are right to call her what she knows and then who knows once she is here and you guys are becoming more and more her mommy and daddy- other names may fit- and as you said she will have choices. I love that they can have choices. I have also always cherished the naming of my children. We have so many naming books its kind of comical and I still have lists from each kid...and none were named until after they were born. Madeline Elaine was almost Gabriella Elaine- and she has been called Maddie then for three years insisted on being called Madeline and now back to Maddie....Cal was nearly Henry Joseph- but we liked the nickname CJ and /or Cal and so we named him Caelan Joseph when he was close to 24 hours old- he is called almost exclusively "Cal" by everyone. Phoebe Darling (not from an obsession of Peter Pan- but my great grandmother was Nellie Darling) was not named for three days- the problem being that Madeline - who was 6 1/2 at the time preferred the other name we had chosen- "Miriam" (Mark's birth mother's last name- he is adopted) and we planned on calling the baby "Mimi"- when we had to break it to our little girl that no, in fact she couldn't name the baby- there was a lot of tears- from both of us! So, Phoebe is Phoebe and she has a best friend whose name is Phoebe and they are known as "The Phoebe's". The Phoebe's were in pre-k and K together and everyone called them by their first and middle names- to distinguish them- and so Phoebe for several years was always called "Phoebe Darling" and when we gave her that middle name- we never thought it would ever get used to that extent. Everyone thought we were from the South- not New York! :)

Yes its the middle of the night and I am rambling - I woke up not feeling well...so maybe this adoption is more and more like an actual pregnancy after all!"