And she shall be called....

Finally, the Brown family agrees. Our "Xiang Xiang" has a new name. But before we unveil her new name, we thought we'd share the hard work involved in bestowing her perfect name.



There were, of course, certain requirements:

First of all, she had to have an "E" name. All of the Brown girls (the Elf, Ladybug and Pooch) have an "E" middle name. So do I...and so does my mom, and my mother- and sister-in-law, etc. So naturally, we didn't want our Xiang Xiang to be different. So Dad, Mom and the girls all went through name books and thought up "E" names on our own. Everyone had favorites. We narrowed the pool down to about 6 names names...Ella, Ellie (or Elly), Emma, Emmy, Elsa and Elsie. Once we met her via our referral, and saw her picture, Dad chose the final two: Elly and Emmy.

Secondly, we wanted her to have a Chinese name, and would rather keep part of her Chinese name. This part was hard before we saw her, but we all loved the Chinese name Mei. When we "met" her and realized she was no baby, but indeed a three year old girl, we especially desired that she have some connection with the culture and people from her first years of life. Her Chinese name (given by the orphanage) was Shan Le Xiang. Her foster family and others she meets call her Xiang, or Xiang Xiang. We liked that one best and we just knew she'd have Xiang as a part of her name. So the Chinese names we chose to consider were Mei, Le, Xiang.

Now, how to put together all of our favorites?!?!

The names we loved and kept to consider were EllyMei Xiang Brown (calling her Elly Mei...this was the one Dad came up with) and Emmy LeXiang Brown (calling her Emmy). Although there was agreement in the pronunciation of the names, there was dissention among the ranks in the spelling of both names. Some Brown children (who will remain anonymous) preferred the "ie" spelling of Ellie and Emmie, but eventually came around to the "y" spelling of those names, albeit somewhat reluctantly. The family went through phases where one name would dominate and stand out, and then the other would be the one. However, we just couldn't nail down a name. So we waited..and thought, and asked each other, and waited...and called her Xiang Xiang.

And then, recently, in the middle of the night, it hit me! Some things we loved about one name we could apply to the other. I shared my revelation with Dad and then the girls, and remarkably, there was no retort. In fact, everyone considered this new idea of a name, and immediately liked it. The more we thought of it, we began to REALLY like it. All that was left was to get the final word from Dad, so we called him this morning at work and he sealed the deal.

She is heretofore to be known by one and all as....

Emmy Xiang Brown

Just so you know, we will lovingly call her "Emmy Xiang" because, being Southerners, we think a double name just drips sweetness, like honey. (Oh, and the Elf has one of those double names too!)

Practically speaking, having "Xiang" in her spoken name might help her more quickly associate her new first name with herself.

And the most important reason of all, we think she just looks like an Emmy Xiang.



So there you have it..she is named. Meet our girl...Emmy Xiang.