| The Possible Names |
I've selected a name:
Noelle <Chinese Name> Kirchhoff
I'll probably call her Ellie or maybe a nickname she got while in the orphanage.
She will have a Chinese name. Most of the orphans in China are named by the orphanage staff. A very few are found with notes from their birth parents which will indicate a name, but this is very unusual. Depending upon her age, I will likely give my daughter an American first name or middle name -- keeping all or part of her Chinese name as the other half. I'm not sure exactly at what age I draw my line, but it may be around 18 months of age. I think you really identify with your name with yourself by 18 months, and I don't know if I'd want to mess with that (I'm messing with so much of her familiar things already at that point -- new people, new language, new facial features, new places ...). Regardless of which comes first on her official paperwork, she'll have her Chinese name and her English name and as she gets older she can choose her preference, if that is what she'd like to do.
I spent awhile looking up options at Baby Name Resources, Baby Name Finder, and this cool site at the Social Security Administration. I didn't quite get through the entire alphabet, when I realized that Noelle was her name (and, yes, I did settle on it around Christmas time. You can check out some of the other names I considered below.
| Abeni | Christa | Eve, Eva |
| Abigail (Abby) | Cian | Frances |
| Adelaide | Cianna | Genevieve (Evie) |
| Adeline | Clara | Grace |
| Adelle (Ada) | Claudia | Hope |
| Adie | Constance | Irene |
| Adrienne | Corina | Isabella (Ellie, Izzie) |
| Agatha (Aggie) | Dale | Joely |
| Agnes | Dalia | Josephine (Jo, Joey) |
| Alana | Joy | |
| Alice | Dora | Lily |
| Alicia | Lucy | |
| Anais | Dorothea (Dotty) | Madeleine |
| Anika | Edana | Margaret (Meg, Maggie) |
| Anna | Edith (Edie) | Maura |
| Annabelle | Eleni | May |
| Beatrice (Bea) | Elia | Mirabel |
| Belle, Bella | Eliana (Ellie) | Nell |
| Eliza | Noelle | |
| Elizabeth (Betsy, Ellie) | Penelope (Penny, Ellie) | |
| Camilla | Ella (Ellie) | Rose |
| Cara | Eloise | Serena |
| Catherine (Cayla) | Elsie | Sophia, Sophie |
| Chelsea | Erin | Tabitha |
| Chloe | Esther |
| Last updated on
March 15, 2004 Get in touch with Amy. |
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