What's in a name? Part 2

If you read my post about this before you know we did not have a definite name picked out for our daughter prior to being matched with her. We were hoping to see her face and have an epiphany. At the same time we also wanted to give her a name that had sentiment and relevance. We were leaning towards giving her a name with the same first initial as me. Since my real first name is Hyacinth but people only really call me Cindy we were wondering what to pick. An "H" name or a "C" name? It quickly became obvious, based on our preferences, that a "C" name would give us more options. Then there was the meaning of the names. I gotta tell you the "C" names we liked had potential issues. Some of the top contenders meant "blind", "crooked nose" and "white". As prospective adoptive parents to a child with a special need, we needed to be sensitive to the fact that these names might not be a good fit for our daughter depending on what her special need was. But we did find out that the name that meant "blind" was also a derivative name of the patron saint of music and we liked that. So we figured as long as our daughter did not have a visual special need than that name was still in play.

When we got matched I put a post on Rumor Queen asking for help translating our daughter's Chinese name. Luckily a super nice woman that also got matched on the same day as us, from the same orphanage and whose husband also happens to be chinese offered to translate her name for me! I emailed her the characters for our daughter's name. Her chinese name is Jiang Qin Dan. And she told us that Jiang means river; Qin means exuding or emanating; and Dan means Peony! Peony!!!! Her name means Peony and I am Hyacinth!!! If that isn't fortuitous than I don't know what is!!! The sentiment and relevance we were hoping for with her american name was already there in her chinese name. I love it!

Her referral information also mentioned a couple times that she liked music! Horray!

And so it is with great joy and excitement that we announce our daughter's name! It will be Celia Qindan ~ our "C" named, patron saint of music inspired, peony exuding little girl!

This photo was taken by our niece Caroline, aka Cece, and another inspiration for Celia's "C" name. It is a photo of the peonies growing in my SIL's garden. Beautiful!