What's in a name??

Our daughter's name is Ibolya (EE-bowl-yah). In Magyar (Hungarian) it is a beautiful name that means "Violet". In Latin it means "Flower". Since you can trust everything you read on Google, people with the name Ibolya "...have a deep inner need for quiet, and a desire to understand and analyze the world they live in, and to learn the deeper truths." which actually sounds a lot like her.

In America however...it makes you think of the Ebola Virus when you hear it said. Admit it, you thought that too. So we are going to change her name.

The name we landed on, which I've mentioned before, is Gianna (jee-AHN-ah). In Italian it means "God is Gracious". For the past 6 years as we've been contemplating adoption and journeying to where we are now, that pretty much sums up the journey. God has been gracious in providing for this impossible task, and is providing a smooth transition even now. (Interesting fact: one of our facilitators told us that he sees a big difference in adoptions in Christian families versus non-believers...said they go MUCH smoother when God is involved. Imagine that!)

But um...she's 7 and she knows her name. She may even love her name. Should we really do that? One encouraging thing is that almost every other family we know that has adopted older children (we have been blessed to have about 6 of them placed in our path) has changed their adopted kids' names. In fact, they say that the kids want to change their names. Like they associate a new name with a new life with a new family, and a new beginning. Our daughter doesn't talk all that much, so it's really hard to tell with her. But the name of a virus just won't do, so it's just gonna happen.

We've been calling her "Gianna Ibolya" every time we call her name. Which is a lot, because it's two of the twenty words we know. Sometimes we'll just call "Gianna" and she answers to it. Our translator has explained to her that she is getting a new special name...don't know if it's really sunk in yet though. It doesn't seem to bother her, but she doesn't seem over the moon about it either. Anyways, we will be keeping her original name as her middle name so that it will always be a part of her.

If you happen to know some great way to get a child to recognize and fall in love with her new name - please leave a comment! Inquiring minds want to know.

Note: She really likes being called "hercegnő" (HAIRDTZ-egg-noo) which means princess. The boy proved himself to be a real live monkey today at the park on the jungle gym. So hitherto and henceforth (in a thick British accent) I shall refer to the chillens as Princess and Monkey.