I met with some new clients this afternoon, a couple (husband early 50's, wife mid 40's), about furnishing rooms for two children. They told me the rooms are for a sibling pair they are adopting from Ukraine. The boy is four and the girl is eight. They are expecting to fly back to Ukraine in a couple of weeks to get the children (not sure why they waited until this late to start preparing the children's rooms, but oh well). I mentioned some of what I have read on this forum about the speed at which children learn English. I mentioned that Memphis has a very small Russian speaking community and wondered if it will be hard to find other Russian speakers to interact with the children. They seemed confused, like it was completely irrelevant or strange for the children to retain their native language. Then they completely shocked me. I asked the names of the children. They told me the names were Viktor and Natasha, but proudly announced that they have already had the names legally changed to Sam and Claire. I thought I must have misunderstood. "You changed their names? Their first names? Won't that confuse them?" I hadn't misunderstood. The wife said Natasha doesn't like it, but that she would just have to get used to being named Claire. Their former names are not that uncommon in the US, not hard to pronounce. I just got the impression this couple is just determined to destroy any former identity and nationality these children have, to immediately turn them into good little redneck, southern, bible-belt Americans. I must have looked as horrified as I felt. They got a little defensive about it, claimed it was common to change the names. Surely, that cannot be common. I hope it isn't. It is bad enough for the four year old, unthinkable for the eight year old. I remember being eight, clearly. I was a person with a personality and an identity. I'm still disturbed by it tonight, many hours later. These children are going to have enough change and confusion... new country, new family, new language, new everything. Why force them to have new first names? “No one but a fool is always right.” -David Hare