Something to consider while you are pregnant and making your hospital plans is what you plan to name your baby. Your baby is yours to name. Yes, his or her adoptive parents may change that name but the name that you give your child will be forever special to him or her.

We did name Punkin when he was born and had to fight to get hospital personnel to use that name. The hospital actually gave him a nickname rather than using the name we had given him. The patient representative and I had a long talk about that one.

I kept everything that I have with Punkin’s birth name on it for him for when he is older. I have a copy of his hospital file and his original birth certificate. These are things that I think are important for adopted people to have and things that we can “gift” our children with when they are more mature.

Many times with open adoption situations, pre birth/first parents and pre adoptive parents will agree on a name that they like together. There will still be an original birth certificate however with the birth/first mom or dad, depending on what is decided, last name on it. This is something worth getting a copy of as well and putting away for your son or daughter; they may want it someday.

If you want to name your baby something completely different from what the adoptive parents want, don’t be afraid to, but remember you need to come to terms with the idea that your baby’s name will change once the adoption is final. I had a very hard time with that at first. Here I had given my baby a name that was important to me and they were going to change it. Punkin’s adoptive parents did keep the first name we gave him as his middle name, and as luck has it, the name we chose even worked in with their family names. That was completely by accident because we didn’t even know Punkin’s adoptive parents when we named him.

So name your baby. Keep everything you can with his/her name on it for them when they are older and more mature. Help yourself out by coming to terms with the idea that the name you give your child may not be the name that the adoptive parents keep for baby, but name him or her anyway. You will never regret it.