Taylor Talks
Life as an Author, Disney World Cast Member, and Big Sister through Foster Care & Adoption
                              Currently pursuing my own adoption journey... I'm #DreamingofaDaughter!
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Dreaming of a Daughter
  • Small Businesses
    • The Write Creations
    • Enhanced Edits
  • About Taylor
  • Contact

Changing First Names

7/25/2015

0 Comments

 
Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

We have Internet! Ha ha ha no, we don't. Twice now something has gotten screwed up and we still have not gotten TV, Internet, or phone hooked up. Now we're told that Tuesday everything will be set up, so fingers are crossed that it pulls through this time. In the meantime, I still have Facebook access from my iPad, and today I saw a post that sparked an idea for today's blog post.
As I've mentioned before, I'm part of Facebook groups in which foster families can discuss the trials and tribulations of foster care, ask each other for advice, share the joys of having foster children, and discuss blogging about foster care and adoption. Today, I saw a post on one of these pages about a foster child wanting to change her name upon her impending adoption, and the family was trying to find the perfect name. This reminded me of finding the perfect names for my own siblings, a topic that I'm not sure I've previously written about.

When a child is adopted through foster care, the parents are able to legally change his or her name. The child is given a new birth certificate anyway, so the new name will be officially put on the birth certificate. Each of my siblings have had their names altered in some way upon their adoptions.

  • My brother kept his first name, because he was older and we all liked his name anyway. My dad chose a new middle name for him though, one that honored a friend of his who had tragically passed away shortly before the adoption.



  • When my sister was adopted, she wanted a nickname. Her given name at birth had been a short name for which there were no nicknames, so my mom came up with a list of names for which her name could work as a nickname. My mom came up with a list of first and middle names that my parents liked, and my sister got to choose her own name! It was really cool.



  • My little brother came to us with a name that my brother couldn't remember and my sister couldn't pronounce, so we took to using a nickname for him using his first initial. Upon adoption, we used our nickname (and a nickname that my Godfather had started using for him), and came up with a new first name. His given birth name became his middle name, so that he still had a part of his history.



  • The twins came with names that honored the grandmothers who didn't want them, so we felt like that wasn't right for them to be honored in that way. Plus, my mom and I had always thought that if we had twins, we would use names that started with A and B (since doctors always refer to twins as Twin A and Twin B). The girls' biological names became their middle names, and we gave them two beautiful new first names. In fact, I actually got to pick the name for Twin B!

Choosing a new name may seem weird to people who haven't gone through an adoption. In high school, when I would talk about it with friends, people would sometimes say that it was wrong to change the kids' names because it was part of who they were. But we always felt like they were part of our family now, and they deserved to be named by my mom and dad just as I had been. But each of my siblings still had a piece of their biological family represented in their names in some way, whether it was as their middle name, a nickname, or their first name. We don't want to erase their history; we just want to give them a brand new start in life with a family who waited for them to be a part of it.

I only have four days to reach my goal of 150 likes on my Facebook author page by the time I'm celebrating a year of blogging on July 29th. I'm happy to announce that I've made it past the 110 mark, but I still need 39 people to hit that "like" button and I would be really grateful to everyone if you could like and share my page. It's as simple as clicking the two buttons at the top right of any blog page, so it only takes a few seconds of your time! As I've mentioned before, when I reach 150 likes, I will share information about the novel that I've been working on, so I'm really excited to hit that milestone!

I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor
Previous Post
Next Post
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    About

    Picture
    My family started doing foster care when I was three years old. We took in nineteen children over the course of eighteen years, with our last placement leaving in December 2014. I'm the only biological child in my family, though my parents adopted five of my siblings.

    I love to share my perspective on the foster care system and share how my unique upbringing shaped my life.

    I'm also a Cast Member at Walt Disney World and lover of all things Disney! My career allows me the opportunity to find a little bit of Magic in life every day.


    I enjoy sharing my journey as a writer as well. Find my children's books on Amazon and keep following my blog for updates on future books that I'll be releasing!

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014


    Categories

    All
    About My Family
    About The Blog
    Adoption
    Baking
    Birthdays
    Career
    Cast Member Mondays
    Day To Day
    Disney
    Family Life
    Foster Care
    Foster Parent Fridays
    Holidays
    Informative
    Inspiration
    Memories
    My Life
    Our Experience
    School
    Shared Stories
    Sign Language
    The Write Creations
    Writing


    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.