Poll: Bright or Brighton?!
I've been thinking alot about my baby boy today, especially about his name. When we first got his referral and found out his name was Bright my first reaction was, "Bright?! Hmmm...that's kind of neat." But within a few minutes both Eric and the kids were talking about how "Brighton" would be the perfect name--and I think it is if we're going to change his name. After all, it's just barely a change, right?! And he'll still probably go by Bright half of the time anyway, since all names seem to be shortened in some way or another.
In the past I've always started calling our referred children by their "new" names immediately. Taevy was Taevy, not Kun Thea, from the day we got her referral. Samren was Samren. But Bright has NOT been Brighton. I think I've not changed over to calling him Brighton (in part) because of the loss we felt when we lost Kendi (Juliet) and Caynan (Emmanuel) from Ghana. I started calling them by their new names immediately and then felt like such an idiot when things fell through. So I've been more cautious with Bright.
The side effect of me calling our baby Bright for the past 5 months is that now I can hardly imagine calling him anything else! He's just Bright to me, and I think he always will be. I think I will start referring to him as Brighton sometimes in writing once we have that adoption decree though (a sign of our kinship I suppose).
So here's my questions for you all (leave a comment or email me at agillispie@cox.net):
1. Bright or Brighton as the official name? ( ________ Isaiah Anagbo Gillispie)
2. Will other kids make fun of the name Bright? I especially worry about this because he has more of a potential for cognitive disabilities than other kids.
3. When would you start calling him Brighton? When is "right?"Don't worry. No pressure! No big decisions are going to be based on your thoughts. I'm just curious to hear what others think about my sweetie's name!
Love,
Anita
Love,
6 comments:
Hi Anita-
I like Bright! A lot. Brighton is a great name, too, but it kind of makes me think of the handbags (which I love....;-)
I will say that I regret changing Sammy's name from Samsaing to Samuel. It seemed like a small change at the time, and a good way to stay the same, but Americanize it. But I still find myself mostly calling him Samsaing - which is what I called him during our long wait.
J.
I like the thought of Brighton as a full first name. When he is a man he may want to use Brighton as his "professional" name is you know what I mean. It seems to give him more options. And Bright is a natural nickname of Brighton.
I don't think that kids would make fun of him for the name Bright. I work in a doctor's office and see ALOT of names. Trust me there are more unusual ones out there. I think people are trying to come up with different, unusual names these days. So, being Bright in the middle of a class full of Daisy's, Clover's, Rock's and Jet's won't be so bad.
I do love the name Brighton though and it is a pretty minor change. Somehow I think it's less of a change to add a bit to the name than it is to drop part of it.
We are adopting from Kazakhstan and do NOT want to give our son an American name. We don't plan to keep his current name either though. His current name will become his middle name and we found a name native to his birth country that we both like to use as his first name.
Names seem to be a big topic on blogs lately, I may have to do one of my own.
we went through the same deal, before our referal we assumed we would call the girl Zoe, so that's what she was called around the house, then we took a referal of a sibling set and had to tell everyone to start using Yosef and Mihret. We are still adding Zoe to Mihret's name but it's just a middle thing now. After 16 months AFTER the referal I think everyone has finally stopped calling her Zoe and started calling her Mihret
I like them both, and Brighton doesn't seem that big of a change, go with your gut.
I'd vote for Brighton, but Bright is fine, too. That's a big help, isn't it? :)
I agree with Avery on this one. I think you have to go with your gut. I like both names and it is likely that if you named him Brighton you would probably still "call" him Bright. So, it will be up to you which way you want to go. Having the name Brighton would allow him to have a more "grown-up" sounding name in the future, if he wanted it. But, at the same token, he could change his name on his own if he wanted to as well. I'm a big help, aren't I??
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