What's In a Name?

The importance of names

According to the University of British Columbia, our names are an incredibly important part of our identity. They carry deep personal, cultural, familial, and historical connections. They also give us a sense of who we are, the communities in which we belong, and our place in the world.

I have been reflecting lately, curious about why a lot of the adoptive parents didn’t keep some or the original birth names while coming up with a new name. I am learning that when your name is changed, it does something to the psyche and can affect your identity as well. While adoptive parents think that giving an American name assimilates us to the Caucasian culture, it erases the ethnic culture that we were born into. Therefore, a lot of Asian Adoptees are changing their names back to their original birth name given to them. While I won’t do that, I do wear at times my Korean name necklace that I had made special in Korea on my last two trips. My Korean name is special to me even though it was probably given to me by my orphanage. But I do wonder what is my true biological name.

As I said in an earlier blog, my Korean name was given to me by my orphanage. It was Lee, Bok Shil. In Korea, the last name is always spoken first and written first. Lee (이) is a very common surname in Korea. It really came from China and means “plum or plum tree”. Lee was used by royalty in ancient Korea, and preferred by provincial elites. However, Bok Shil is not so common and so there isn’t really a meaning that the Koreans have found. While researching on my own, I found that Bok (복) means “Grace” and there is no meaning for Shil (실) or Sil.

My American name is Darcy Jean Mittelstaedt- Darcy means “little dark one”, Jean means “God is gracious”, and Mittelstaedt means “middle of the street”. Names are very interesting, have you ever given thought of what your name means?