July 14, 2007
When I told my husband this, he looked at me and exclaimed “NO, absolutely not. You have REALLY lost it this time, we are NOT naming our son ‘Crisis’ we might as well name him ‘Tsunami’!!”
And then I was all, “Um, no, I am having a crisis in regards to boy names. I’m having a boy-name crisis.”
“Oh. Well, good. I mean, not good that you are having a crisis, but good that you don’t want to name our son Crisis.”
The thing is, Mike would respond with the same disdain and repulsion as he did above whether the name meant “a crucial or decisive point or situation; a turning point” or not. You could insert the name ‘Sam’ or ‘Will’ or even ‘Charlie’ and he would exclaim “CHARLIE?! We might as well have his middle name be ‘and the Chocolate Factory.’”
And it’s like that with every. single. name I mention. Hence, the boy-name crisis.
Roble. “That’s disgusting. That’s like ROBLE-COP or something”
Kelile. “Would you like some cream with your Kelile? Kelile and Cream? no” (I’m pretty sure he is talking about Kahlua here)
Enzi. “Enzi, like Enzyme?”
Esi. “Esi, like East SIDE. EAST SIDE BALLERS!”
Bates. “Ya, and if he someday wants to work with horses in a stable, his hired help can call him ‘Master’. ‘Master Bates’ Nice Jamie, good one.”
Ezekiel. “Sure! Or even like Moses or Judas or Cain! We should name our son Cain!”
You see what he does? I even told him how I had a College buddy who’s name was Ezekiel and how everyone called him ‘Zeke’ and I thought that was super cute. I’m PRETTY sure no one called him Cain. Or Judas for that matter.
But he won’t have it. He shoots them all down. He thinks we need to see pictures and see faces before we can properly come up with suitable names. Oh, did you forget? We are getting two kids, so we need to have TWO names each, for each gender.
Which brings me to our girls names. Our lovely, wonderful girls names. I don’t know if I even want to mention them in case there are vulturous name-stealers among us. You carnivorous name stealers! Stay away!
But, I’ll tell you. We have Yenna and then we have…. nothing else.
But Yenna! I adore this name, love it, love it, love it. And Mike loves it too. It’s like an African version of “Hannah” or something. And we love it. We keep going back and forth on the second girls name of Biset. Which, we love and it is African as well but I think it sounds too beautiful. It’s too pretty I think. I feel like it sounds similar to Elizabeth and that a name so lacy and pretty doesn’t sit well next to Delaney, which is more of a cute, punky and spunky name in my opinion.
So, Biset might be too pretty. But Yenna we love. And so far, that’s it! That’s all we can agree on.
So, Internets, do you have anything? Any great boy names? Any great girl names? Anyone want to back me up on the above mentioned super awesome African boy names? African or not, we need names. We had the awesome name of Miles picked out for the domestic placement that fell through but it seems wrong to transfer that name over to this situation. I can’t really do it. I can’t do Miles again.
And, I know that our kids will come with names and some people keep those names. And we plan to keep those names as middle names. Please don’t flame me for wanting to give our kids new first names. Different strokes for different folks, alright?
Posted by Jamie @ 2:08 pm • Mike, adoption schmaloption
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July 14th, 2007 at 5:34 pm, julie Says:
Well, I grew up in Amish country so Ezekiel has a very non-African connection for me, but I do love it and love Zeke. The rest are new names to me, but I do like Esi. It’s like Eli, but with a little extra flavor.
How about Chris, since that’s what I thought the title said anyhow?
I don’t blame you a bit for wanting to give the kids your own names, but don’t rule it out either. One or both may have a name that seems just perfect and you’ll have stressed yourself out for nuttin.
You can try nymbler.com but it doesn’t have Yenna or Biset as starting points.
July 14th, 2007 at 7:09 pm, Rebecca Says:
It seems we all have the same struggle in coming up with names! My husband is the EXACT same way. We can’t agree on anything. Every name I really love, he shoots down. We have a friend that says for every name we pick, he will think of a way to make fun of our child. So, we may never come up with a name.
However, I do like Ezekiel - Zeke. We have a little nephew named that or else I would use it! I also love the name Dax - but it doesn’t sound very Ethiopian! Oh, and I have to agree about the Master Bates thing - there was a guy in my high school named Bates and everyone called him Master!
July 14th, 2007 at 9:21 pm, erinthebeekeeper Says:
We are having a boy name crisis in our house also and I don’t like it. My names are AWESOME, and biblical, the Sailor likes sucky names like Bob, Homer, Zel, etc… He sucks, I’m cool, I should choose the name. And to make it worse my FAVORITE name starts with the same letter as the bee’s first name, and I swore I’d never be one of those families.
the sailor sucks and I don’t like him anymore!
July 14th, 2007 at 9:44 pm, abebech Says:
Biset to me is a beautiful but spunky girl. I don’t see it as lacey at all.
I wish we had waited until we had our referral before getting as attached as we did to her name (and in particular as attached as ds got to her name). We knew we would give her a name, but I didn’t consider how it might not work with her current name, or situation, or the possibility that I would fall in love with the meaning of his/her given. As it turns out, it’s just perfect for a very bizarre reason, but it might not have been. Next time I think I’ll have a list of maybes and not share them with little bun or Miss I until we find out what #3’s name is and means.
But for me, somehow, I needed to dream her with a name to get by during the wait . . .
July 14th, 2007 at 10:11 pm, Emma Says:
As far as Ethiopian names go, I like Desta or Ayana for a girl. When it comes to boys… yeah, I got nothing.
July 14th, 2007 at 10:45 pm, Heather Says:
Ok -Favorite girl Ethiopian names-
Tesfanesh (Tess/tessa for short)
Kalkidan (kali for short)
Amara
Alemitu (Ali for short)
Tarikua (Tari for short)
Boys Ethiopian names
Ashenafi (Ashenafee alternate spelling- in the spirit of full disclosrue I must confess this is my son’s middle name!)
Yared
Yonas
Tsegaye
most biblical names also have an Ethiopian version-
Good luck with the names!
blessings,
Heather
July 15th, 2007 at 12:58 am, Jamie's husband Says:
I’m great.
July 15th, 2007 at 2:45 am, blondie Says:
Are you keeping your child’s birth name at all? I think it is really important to consider, rather than assuming that you will change his/her names now.
When Ethiopians are born, they are given names that reflect their family connection. For example: Alemayhu Wubishet is given his own first name followed by the first name of his father (Wubishet) as his surname. So, to keep your child’s birth name is a sign of repect to your child’s culture and familial ties.
I know of a lot of families who have added a Western name and their family name to their child’s birth name as a sign of “new” family, ie. Alemayhu Wubishet Nicholas Smith.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:22 am, christi Says:
Hey, have you checked out myethiopianame? It has a great list of names and their meanings.
We also have requested a sib set of 2 and need 2 names for each gender — also planning on using the ET name as a middle name. We’re good on the girl names but are struggling a bit with the boys.
As for your hubby-dear knockin’ down every suggestion, what stellar names has he come up with??
July 15th, 2007 at 5:41 pm, Erin Says:
Jamie,
I like all of the names you suggested… My hubby Josh and Mike sound like they could be twins in this department. I LOVE LOVE the name Biset…it’s gorgeous.
And I think Zeke is super cool.
My rule with Josh was that for every name he shot down, he had to make a suggestion.
Oh, and I gave you a Rockin’ Girl Blogger award. Come over to my blog and check it out.
http://fullhousefullhandsfullhearts.blogspot.com
July 15th, 2007 at 6:02 pm, Mandy Says:
Here’s a website I’ve used to find names and they also have the meanings for many different cultures.
http://www.babycenter.com/babyname
If that doesn’t work just go to babycenter.com and you should be able to find it from there.
July 15th, 2007 at 10:01 pm, dawn Says:
I love Elias/Elijah for a boy. That was our second choice for our Ethiopian son–we went with Noah. Ethiopia is very christian so anything biblical will honor Ethiopia.
for a girl, I second Desta–I think that is a pretty name. I also like Mestawat (sp)–a friend of mine’s daughter who was 3 when adopted was named that and they call her Messe for short–very spunky.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:58 pm, Waitingformaddie Says:
I love Yenna and every Zeke I have met has been cool! If we were adopting a boy I love the name Jake, but alas that is not to be.
My husband had some words of wisdom (shocked I know) that our adoption is like our marriage. When we were married we merged two families, two traditions and two cultures to get one. With our adoption we are doing the same, merging one culture into another to make something new.
Choosing a name that you pick yet merging a piece of Ethiopian culture (given name) is beautiful!
July 16th, 2007 at 4:38 pm, Jennifer Says:
Ok, I am so over all of your new loyal followers! I feel like you are cheating on me!
I love all of the names that you have picked and just hope that when you see the pictures of your precious ones for the first time, the name will come to you.
Personally, I like Biruk and Selihom… I think that if I didn’t hate Dr. Burk from Grey’s Anatomy, I would call my son Burk as an Americanized ode to his Ethiopian name. And Selihom is just a perfect Seli… like the mattresses.
Good luck in your name quest- and stop fooling around so much!
July 18th, 2007 at 12:41 am, Rae Says:
Okay, so you asked for opinions, so you’re gonna get ‘em!
I like Yenna and Biset, but I actually think Biset is a better match to Delaney than Yenna. Yenna seems frilly and feminine to me, while Biset has the spunk. I dunno.
I like Enzi for a boy, but we were going to name our boy Ezra when we thought we were going to get a baby (now we’re naming him Ezra Spencer and calling him Spencer, which is his given name), so maybe I just like the E and z sound combination. Ezra’s an option, though, and it means “helper,” or “life-saver” so that’s a pretty cool thing to be calling your kid!
Boy names are always WAY harder for us than girls. There’s just not a big enough selection. I don’t envy you.
Oh, and I agree that you might want to wait to really settle on anything until you see photos and hear their first-family names.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:47 am, Lisa Reidenbach Says:
Hi Jamie,
I love your blog!! You make me laugh out loud! My 5 y/o Ethio son’s name is Bamlak (pronounced Bomb-lock) and I absolutely think it’s the coolest!!! It means-”through God”. I wanted to name him Samuel until I saw him and learned of his name and then I fell in love with both!! Biset is a gorgeous name!!! I think it goes great with Delaney. Have a great day,
Lisa
July 18th, 2007 at 10:32 am, Shannon Says:
THe name thing is so hard!
I love Ethiopian names, so I am slightly jealous in that regard…you may just decide that the names they already have are perfect!
I like Ezekial too…and Yenna.
L. would have been Caroline Margaret if he were a girl…but I feel like the time for that name has passed. I am hoping she has a Vietnamese name that can sort of work i.e. Lan=Lana Kinh=Kinhly or something like that.
Can’t wait to see the outcome of the great name debate!
July 19th, 2007 at 9:01 am, Brenda Says:
I love your blog. No matter what is going on in your life, you manage to find the humor in it. I love it. Well, my son is home 2 months from Kenya and I can’t believe you mentioned his name, Enzi. I loved this name from the first time I saw it. Yes, some poeple manage to pronounce it like enzyme. My husband even called him Enzyte until I told him it was a male enhancement pill. So he stopped. I am so bad at girl names, too many choices.
July 19th, 2007 at 12:33 pm, Audrey Says:
Okay… I got it. I know what you should name your man child.
MIKE
I just really think there needs to be a fourth Mike in the family.
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:32 am, Possum Says:
As an adoptee - I ask - PLEASE don’t change your adopted children’s names - unless they ask for it.
As adoptees - we are given NO choices.
Don’t take away from them the one thing that is really theirs.
Respect the children - respect their culture.
JMHO.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:42 pm, Erin O' Says:
Hey. First, let me say that in the middle of the night in bed, I finally got the “i’m having a boy name crisis” joke — that your dh thought you wanted to name the boy “Crisis.” I’m slow.
We came up with names for boys and girls, all the while arguing about whether or not to change their names. I didn’t want to, especially if they were older (which they were). My Dh understood why I didn’t want to, but had trouble wrapping his mouth around some of the Ethiopian names we had heard.
Once we got the names and the pictures, we stopped trying to come up with names. They had faces, they had lived a life without us for a few years, and they had names. Then we met them. It was such a huge transition for them, and they were Habtamu and Lire. Not to mention that H. would not tolerate even a nickname, so we weren’t going to push any unnecessary changes. I also think that spending time at the orphanage, learning a little Amharic, and talking to the nannies and other Ethiopians while there helped us to hear the beauty of the language, and the care put into the naming of children.
I haven’t read the other comments, and I’m not telling you that any way is right or wrong. We did what was good for all of us, and it sort of all makes sense when it finally happens, I think. Let the referral happen, see how you all feel, and say their names A LOT to one another. Even if the names become middle names, get comfortable with them.