My husband and I finally decided on a name, and since I got so much help from this forum, I thought I’d come back and share. We’re adopting a little girl from [name]China[/name], and as we’ve done with our other kids, she gets a family name (my great-grandparents’ last name) as one of her middle names, and her Chinese name as her second middle name.
[name]Thalia[/name] Fearn SongGuo W. (two syllable last name)
It’s Greek and it means “to flourish/bloom.” 
Congrats on your adoption! She’ll have a wonderful start to her new life with such a lovely name like [name]Thalia[/name]! Good luck!
Beautiful name. Congratulations!
A lot of these issues were brought up on another adoption post today, so just to rehash: Unless you’re adopting an infant (which isn’t possible when adopting internationally, as far as I know), your child has a name. Let me repeat that. Your child has a name. I understand the desire to symbolize this child coming into your family by giving them a family name, but why shunt their own real name to third place? Song Guo is hardly unpronounceable. It’s a beautiful, meaningful name that connects your daughter to her heritage. I am a prospective adoptive parent and would never, ever change my child’s name. It’s the only thing in the world they can call their own. Replacing it is a violation of their history and their autonomy. Please, please reconsider.
What a lovely name! Congratulations on your adoption. [name]Little[/name] miss [name]Thalia[/name] is so lucky to have such a beautiful and meaningful name.
[name]Thalia[/name] Fearn SongGuo is a [name]LOVELY[/name] name for your new daughter!
[name]Augusta[/name] - I appreciate your opinion and have made these same arguments myself with others on occasion, albeit more tactfully, I hope. I am an adoptive parent many times over, and in some cases we’ve kept names and in some cases we’ve changed them. With our Chinese daughters we changed them precisely because they are NOT meaningful. While our other children have the benefit of names that were chosen by their first parents, our Chinese daughters’ names were chosen for them from a rotating list of names upon entering the orphanage. It’s a step beyond being assigned a number. These are my children and I want them to have names that were chosen out of love, not given because it was next on a list or chosen at random.
Our Chinese daughters all have their Chinese names as part of their name, and we’ve told them from the time they’ve been old enough to understand that they’re free to use either name. [name]One[/name] took us up on it for a short time, but reverted to her English name eventually. In addition, the majority of our Chinese and Taiwanese friends have all chosen English names for themselves as a matter of preference, so culturally this isn’t a significant departure either. And beyond that, whether it’s “right” or “wrong” (which is completely subjective), the vast majority of parents in the [name]China[/name] adoption community do choose new new “American” names.
As we’ve done with our other Chinese daughters, we’ll refer to our new child by both names. You’re certainly welcome to do as you like with your new child’s name, but we’re comfortable with our decision.
Congratulations! I think it is a beautiful name.
That was really well said, worldmom.
Congratulations! Beautiful name.