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I do cat rescue and interestingly I just placed a kitten with a Ukranian family two weeks ago. The kitten, who is eight months, had a name I gave her when I got her at four months. When I asked the family if they had picked out a new name for their kitten they said that they thought they should keep her name because she's used to it and it would be hard for her to get used to a new name. Apparently they thought that the kitten had some kind of attachment to her name. That tells me that all Ukranians aren't all that unsentimental and uncaring about names.
Since this question was asked about Ukraine, and we have hosted many Ukrainian social orphans in our home over a period of years, I can tell you several things.
(omitted)
Graduation from an internat - Ukrainian orphanage for older children is so sad. They are essentially being thrown out.
Unless they have a relative to help, they wind up on the streets.
Slightly off the name topic, but in regard to Sheena's statement about orphanage "graduates", she is spot-on. The traffickers and Mafioso line up outside the orphanages on graduation day, just lying in wait for the pretty girls and desperate young boys to emerge, a few pitiful clothes and other small possessions in hand...it's estimated that about 60% of the girls enter prostitution, out of desperation, and around 70% of the boys fall into some form of crime. Drug and alcohol addiction and AIDS are other common outcomes for these young people - such a tragic loss.
However - Bible Orphan Ministry is working to assist such young people in the Zhitomir region, west of Kyiv (thus, safer right now). They hope to provide kitchen utensils, blankets, Bibles, and a few other basics for these sixteen and seventeen year olds (along with practical instruction and guidance in the basics of independent living, and encouragement).
Graduations are scheduled to take place in late May. Graduates receive a very small (and now, shrinking) stipend from the government and are not charged tuition at vocational training schools, many of which are irrelevant and inadequate. Sending a bright teen to a brick factory is not a good use of resources...dormitories at such places are often decrepit and dangerous. If a graduate chooses not to attend such "schools", they are on their own and frequently, on the streets.
See BOM's blog for more information if you might be interested in helping: Bible Orphan Ministry
BOM is a private all-Ukrainian non-profit which works with and provides assistance of various kinds - clothing, toys, food, Bible lessons, practical living lessons - for over 1,000 orphans and young adults, many of whom have special needs, and a growing number of young orphanage graduates. They operate on a shoestring, with a small staff, several of whom are orphanage graduates themselves.
BOM's accounts and photos of their work are very moving, and I can vouch for their honesty, sincerity, and effectiveness. They are not an adoption agency, but rejoice when children are found by loving families. More pictures and information can be found at BOM's Facebook page, which is linked to their blog.
I do cat rescue and interestingly I just placed a kitten with a Ukranian family two weeks ago. The kitten, who is eight months, had a name I gave her when I got her at four months. When I asked the family if they had picked out a new name for their kitten they said that they thought they should keep her name because she's used to it and it would be hard for her to get used to a new name. Apparently they thought that the kitten had some kind of attachment to her name. That tells me that all Ukranians aren't all that unsentimental and uncaring about names.
I never said that "all Ukrainians are uncaring about names".
I did say that in my considerable experience with hosting and advocating for abused and neglected school age Ukrainian social orphans that ALL of them desired new names.
I really love it when people apply American cultural standards to a group of people about whom they know nothing, from a country that they have most likely never visited.
Giving a child a new name is a gift to the child. It signifies a new start.
I see no percentage in retaining a name that was most likely screamed at the child during the course of a beating.
The child deserves a new name from parents who love them.
When you keep the name, who are you paying homage to; the child or the abuser?
Let's all agree that there are children awaiting adoption in Ukraine who have some very unwieldy names.
The question has been answered. The name CAN be changed.
I know it's a very old thread - but my, what a read!
My favorite part, of course, was that all the comments on "unwieldy" names and how "Oleg" is an ugly name that sounds like "a leg" come from a person whose screen name means "a car tire", "a universal bus", or "a surgical splint" in Russian and Ukrainian...
The name CAN be changed!
I know it's a very old thread - but my, what a read!
My favorite part, of course, was that all the comments on "unwieldy" names and how "Oleg" is an ugly name that sounds like "a leg" come from a person whose screen name means "a car tire", "a universal bus", or "a surgical splint" in Russian and Ukrainian...
The name CAN be changed!
Since I was born in the Ukraine and have an unusual and difficult to pronounce name, and have known a couple of people named Oleg, I feel the need to chime in and say that many people are idiots.
I am an American citizen. I love this country and what it has provided me but gosh, too many people here need a bit of culturilization.
Since I was born in the Ukraine and have an unusual and difficult to pronounce name, and have known a couple of people named Oleg, I feel the need to chime in and say that many people are idiots.
I am an American citizen. I love this country and what it has provided me but gosh, too many people here need a bit of culturilization.
Thanks for your insight.
Just don't confuse adult Americans with American children, who are prone to teasing and worse, bullying their peers for whatever reason they can think of. My own surname is English, and my ancestors who bore that name first arrived in America in the mid-1600s - yet I still got bullied because of that surname, when I was in junior high. My cousins who share the name reported similar experiences.
So if adoptive parents hope to spare their children by changing their original given names - names which may fall strangely upon immature ears - I cannot blame them for their good intentions. However, it's likely that a kid who is prone to bullying will find some reason to do so, regardless of the target's name. Changing a problematic name just helps eliminate a target. Yes, of course it's unreasonable, and makes little sense - but neither are young bullies reasonable or sensible.
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