Little Bug has a LOOOOOOONG name. We chose to keep not only his two-part Korean name as his middle name, but also to keep his Korean surname as a first (but socially unused) middle name.
That means my child's name is [Given Name] [Korean Surname] [Part 1 Korean Given Name] [Part 2 Korean Given Name] [Surname]. Kindergarten and standardized tests are going to be awesome for him.
Some days I sort of regret saddling him with all these names (or at least not combining where we could), but usually I love his name. I love the fact that we kept his Korean surname (a direct link to his birth mother we want him to proudly bear), even though it is the biggest pain in the butt to explain why it's legally there but we don't pseudo-legally use it, and it will undoubtedly annoy him as he grows up. (Did you know on most medical and school records you can put as many or as few of your child's legal middle names as you would like?)
What I love most about his name is his Korean given name. When he first came home, we paired his given name with his Korean given name to help him learn to respond to the new name. Oddly enough, the pairing (or tripling, as would be the case here) stuck and we probably call him [Given Name] [Part 1 Korean Given Name] [Part 2 Korean Given Name] about 50% of the time.
What I like very best though, is a bit more often than occasionally, we just call him by his Korean given name. It's become almost like an intimate name, not a nickname, but the kind of name only a family member would use. Indeed, the only people who ever call him just by his Korean name are Appa and me, his foster family, and a couple aunts and uncles. It's not forced or used as a funny sort of thing; it just sometimes rolls off our tongues and sounds natural. Familial intimacy is the only way I can think to describe it. When I hear it, I am happy.
For Little Bug's part, he responds to both names equally. In the future, if he wants to just go by one name or the other, it will be easy for us to roll with that for as long as he wishes. I sometimes wonder if there will be times when he won't want us to use his Korean names, or if there will be times he only wants us to use his Korean names.
I'll be happy either way, and I hope "The MC" will be, too. Except when he has to try to fit 21 letters and 4 spaces into 15 bubbles on a standardized test…I'd be cursing us at that point, too.
Wow...it is a bit complicated, and I KNOW the names and all about Korean names. But you still wrote it in a way I could follow.
ReplyDeleteNaming a child, especially when he comes with a name already is very tricky. You want to blend his life with you with they life he's already had in a respectful and meaningful way and that's a lot of pressure.
I adore Gabe's Korean name and to me, it's so him. I call him YM frequently (especially after a BOF episode). But I differ from you in a way, that if we meet Korean people I introduce him as YM.I love though that your family calls him MC though...so cute and intimate, like you said.
Many names, but I think that's OK. I bet he'll try each one on at some point in his life to see what fits, and that's good he'll have those options. I was also thinking we'll keep calling our little one by her Korean name at home too.
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