What's in a name?

We have had several names picked out along the way of our adoption journey but none have stuck so far. We struggle with many things, first and foremost, trying to create a certain cadence with our last name. Ours is a long, many lettered, many voweled, greek sounding but actually italian in origin last name. You just can't throw it up against any old first name.

I also seem to have an affinity for italian sounding first names. This worries my husband as he is concerned that a very big, long italian name might be difficult for an adopted asian child to carry. And I see his point, my maiden name was very American sounding, very Cindy Brady-ish and I, the daughter of a german and a filipino immigrant, do not look very Cindy Brady-ish. I wish I had a nickel for every time I would show up somewhere and people would question "you're Cindy 'Brady'?" Of course this was in the 70's and 80's pre-political correctness when people would actually say "I thought you would be blonde" when I showed up. Luckily, I grew to have a sense of humor about the whole thing but it was difficult at first. The first day of the school year when they do roll call was always stressful because Cindy is not my real first name. Its only my nickname. My real first name is Hyacinth and apparently the elementary school teachers in the 70's and early 80's did not know the name. They always pronounced it Hee-ah-cinth or Hee-ah-cint-ay. Where the ay part came from I'll never know but it is Hyacinth like the flower. I was a shy child and I was not a fan of being different.

We'd also like to keep part or all of our daughter's Chinese name as her middle name so there is always the potential of some bad rhyming name or a bad monogram. Case in point, our youngest son's name is Derek, his middle initial is M (after my father-in-law) and his last initial is A. At his christening we got all sorts of monogrammed gifts and his monogram spells DAM. The joke was "Can you please hand me his DAM blanket, cup, picture frame, etc." I thought it was hilarious and my husband told me it wasn't as funny as I thought it was. Hmmmm.

Anyway, all that to say, we are still undecided on a name. I think I need to see her face. I think we'll see her face and just know.