Comments on: Keeping the Korean Name

By: Sandra

Sandra — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 06:42:09 +0000

Koreans do not have middle names. On my mother’s American citizenship papers it says that her name is Kyong Cha Pak, but the Kyong Cha, is her first name, a two syllable first name, like Mary or Sara.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 20:13:19 +0000

When we adopted our daughter from Korea we contemplated keeping her Korean name. I am fortunate to like in a ethnically diverse area, we have several Korean neighbors, so I asked my one neighbor for her advice. She told me to give our daughter an American name. We should let her always know her Korean name and heritage, but give her an American name. So, we have given our daughter the name Sophie, it sounds like her Korean name So Hee. I honestly don’t know if it was the right thing, but she’s so happy and we’re so happy with her.

By: sara

sara — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 21:10:46 +0000

Visiting from the Korea board on adoption.com! I had to chuckle about your sister saying she’d change her name when she was 18…I vividly remember sitting in my sandbox and telling my dad I hated the name Sara and wanted to change my name to Julie once I was 18. While it wasn’t a cultural issue for me I hated how plain my name was. Our son (born in Korea) will have part of his Korean name as his middle name…I hope he is ok with that as he gets older.

By: kim

kim — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 19:37:08 +0000

Mo,
thank you for providing different points of view. (that of both you and your sister). Isn’t it funny how kids raised in the same household can differ so greatly. I am so glad that you are doing this blog, as I think you provide a great first hand perspective.

By: Adrienne Bashista

Adrienne Bashista — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 14:45:16 +0000

We did the same thing for our son that your parents did for you, for much the same reason. Little J’s Russian name was moved to his middle name. We were actually prepared to keep it as his name as we adopted him at 15 months and we thought he’d know his name but it didn’t appear that he did. He would turn his head to anything said in a sing-songy “baby” voice and yet didn’t respond when his name was said in a normal voice. Apparently the children were not spoken to individually very often.
Hi American name is my grandfather’s, just like his older brother’s name is my husband’s great-grandfather’s.
It’ll be interesting to see how he feels as he gets older.