Names and naming in adoption: Birth heritage and family‐making

Abstract

In this article, we consider the significance and practices of names and naming in adoption, to develop understanding of the issue amongst scholars, policy makers, adoption practitioners, and adoption communities. Research on the topic of names and adoption is scarce and focused mostly on international and domestic adoptions in the United States. We draw on the research literature to critically explore names and naming in adoption through two recurrent and related themes. The first is 'birth heritage', where names, forenames especially, are shown to be important in the approach taken by adopters to their child's birth family and cultural identity. The second theme is 'family-making', where namesaking and homogeneity of surname emerge, amongst others, as strategies to create, sustain and display 'family'. In gathering together for the first time an otherwise scattered, disparate body of research, our article showcases names and naming as illuminating distillations of key contemporary challenges experienced by families formed through adoption. We conclude our article by considering emergent gaps in existing knowledge and understanding about names, naming and adoption that might usefully be addressed, to inform professional advice and familial decisions about names, and enhance outcomes for adoptees and their families.

The namesaking of children as an investment strategy for managing kin relations and bonding fathers to their children.

“…A very recent study by Pilcher et al (2020) confirmed the importance of namesaking as a tool for integrating adopted children into their new families and as a way to sharply differentiate adopted from birth families.…”

Invisible Labours

“…In English social life, naming actively makes connections between persons, including kinship connections (Edwards 2000(Edwards , 1999. This can take place in situations of ambiguous family membership such as adoption (Pilcher, Hooley and Coffey 2020), or within new family-making practices such as post-divorce name changes (Finch 2008). Shared surnames may express family belonging and claims to place (Edwards and Strathern 2000) to personhood within a kinship relationship.…”

Studia Socjologiczne

“…Również w tym przypadku istotnym sposobem demonstrowania rodzinności są praktyki związane z nazywaniem -chodzi zarówno o nazewnictwo wewnątrz rodziny (np. nazywanie opiekunów prawnych: mama, tata), jak i przyjęcie przez dzieci nazwiska rodziców adopcyjnych (Biehal 2014;Pilcher, Zara, Coffey 2020). Trzeba jednak dodać, że część rodziców adopcyjnych lub zastępczych, uwzględniając znaczenie więzi biologicznej dziecka z rodziną pochodzenia, nie dążyło do zmiany jego nazwiska (Jones, Hackett 2011;Biehal 2014).…”