Names

We are already in the cabin waiting for Christmas, all is very quiet, just the three of us. During the trip from Portland to Ashford we read a book about baby names to choose the name of the child.
We are thinking about giving him/her a western first name and leaving the two original names given to him/her in Ethiopia. We know that the parents are the ones that usually give the child the name but sometimes someone in the orphanage does. We thought it was the right thing to do so he/she can keep the connection to the country and culture.

In Ethiopia, there is not a system of name and surname like we have in the West, but children take the first name of the father as their last name. For example if the of the father is John Paul, and the kid is given the name of Frank, his full name will be Frank John and if it’s a daughter it will be just the same, for example Mary John. When Frank John has a child and name him Charles, the full name will be Charles Frank, and so on.
Women don’t change their names after marrying.
If the girl’s name we’ll adopt is Samrawit Alem, we are going to give her a first name and keep the other two Ethiopians names in the middle, for example Helen Samrawit Alem Grinberg.


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