Open Adoption Roundtable # 6

Open Adoption Roundtable # 6: Write about names/naming and open adoption.

Check out this post for everyone else's submissions.

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Below is something that I wrote for Liam's scrapbook when he was only a few months old. The me of today reads it with the benefit of 7 years worth of adoption education and immediately notices the glaring omission of any thoughts of what his first mother might have wanted to call him, or even getting her input in anyway. We had a pre-birth match and we did ask "K" if she would like to name the baby or if she had any names picked out. She declined, telling us that this was our baby and that she wanted our name for him to be his name from day 1. (we have all of that info documented for Liam in his scrapbook too).

I now wonder though if she did have a name picked out? A name she thought of every time the baby kicked or kept her up at night. I would love to know that for Liam. The one thread of information that I had growing up in my own closed adoption was my pre-adoption name. Colleen. It has always been important to me, a small connection to who I may have been.

Choosing a name was fairly easy for us. We both made a list of 10 girl’s names and 10 boy’s names. When we compared our lists we had 4 in common for both boys and girls. Over dinner one night at East Side Mario's we got out the lists and started coming up with combinations that we both liked.

We ended up withWilliam Patrick Thomas (to be called Liam)

And

Sarah Rosemary Winifred

The significance of each name is:

• William - Hilary's Step Father


• Patrick - Hilary's Grandfather


• Thomas - Just 'cause


• Sarah - Hilary's Sister


• Rosemary - Hilary's Mother


• Winifred - Andy's Grandmother

Having the family connections was important to both of us.

The definition of each name is:

• William - German resolute guardian


• Liam - Irish unwavering protector


• Patrick - Latin nobleman


• Thomas - Hebrew a twin


• Sarah - Hebrew Princess


• Rosemary - Latin dew of the sea


• Winifred - German Friend of Peace

We also had the fun of picking a last name!

We decided the easiest and fairest way to choose which last name to use was to pick the first name that we liked and put it together with whichever last name sounded best.

So we ended up with

• William Patrick Thomas my last name


• Sarah Rosemary Winifred Hilary's last name

And the naming game was won!