I read an article in an adoptive newsletter once that said, “You might be a foster or adoptive parent if you have three beautiful daughters and they are all named Jessica.” It really does get confusing when you blend families by adoption and you end up with siblings who have the same or very similar names. Marie over at the Christian Adoption blogs was just talking about this dilemma in her own blended family.

When we adopted our first sibling group, two daughters, we tried to convince them to change their names, just a little. Our oldest daughter happened to have the same name as a cousin who was the same age and in the same 4-H club. We tried to talk her into a slight variation of her name, which happened to be the nickname that she normally went by. She was adamant about not changing her name and at the age of 15, who could blame her. After the adoption, we just referred to the girls by their first and middle names to differentiate, since they had the same last names.

One of my friends adopted two boys named Josh who have about a 10-year age difference. She is adamant about not changing a child’s name, therefore everyone calls them Big Josh and Little Josh. I hope neither boy ends up in trouble with the law or the credit bureau because I’m sure it will cause problems for the brother with the same name.

Now that I am a grandmother, there are three grandma Fullers. Please don’t tell Great-great Grandma Fuller that all of the children refer to her as Old Grandma to differentiate between the grandmothers’ Fuller.

Because our adopted children have so many grandparents between birth family and adoptive family, we just refer to them as Grandma and Grandpa (last name.)
Even my children, who are not actually related to those grandparents, still refer to them as Grandma and Grandpa (last name) or aunt and uncle (last name.) They haven’t seemed to mind and some have “adopted” all of my children as their relatives.


For information/instructions on how to subscribe FREE to your favorite AdoptionBlogs, please visit this link. your favorite AdoptionBlogs

It’s True! Adopting Special Needs Children Can Make You Nuts
Only One of Us Can Be Good at Home
I Refuse to Treat My Adopted Children Equally!
Did You Ever Think, “My Child’s Special Needs Are Too Much to Handle?”