4/4/07




I confess I am surprised that the number one question I get asked is "Will you keep his name?" The number one question for a while had been "Will he come with a name?" which I highly resented because it made it sound like our son was a product. I will never forget the first time I heard Zenabu's name. Lindsay had called me with our referral and she said, "His name is Zenabu and he's 3 years old." It took me about 24 hours to get used to this unusual but beautiful name (which means rain) and since then I've been smitten. There was much discussion in our house about whether or not to keep his Ethiopian name or change it or shorten it. David's middle name is Jon, so we settled on Jon Zenabu. It flows well and would be easy to transition into. But there's one problem...

I can't do it. I cannot call our son anything other than Zenabu. So who knows what we'll do. Maybe everyone else will call our son Jon, but I will be the holdout for Zenabu. Maybe we'll call him J.Z. Maybe Zenabu will not allow anyone to call him Jon and he will decide for us. After all, it's his name. I guess we will wait and see.

1 comment:

jayme said...

I love the name Zenabu, and I love its meaning as well. The name question is always controversial, and there are good arguments for each side, but in the end, I think you have to go with your gut. And who knows, he may have his own opinions on the issue!