Hi, all. It has been awhile. We have been busy and also out-of-town. I will try to post a few pictures tonight but, for now, I wanted to talk about something. As my friends and family know, I was completely tight-lipped about naming Fin. I didn't think people would like it and I didn't want to be influenced in choosing what I truly felt to be the name for my daughter. I also wanted to incorporate her Chinese name because that was her name for almost four years and it was not my place to take it away from her. I was so thrilled that her name, Mian Mian, was a beautiful and easily incorporated one. One problem, I couldn't really get a good translation of it. In China, names have meaning and it was important to me to know what was trying to be conveyed with the selection of her name.
In case you didn't know, there are internet angels. These are people who use this place where we all gather to enrich the lives of others. I encountered such a person on an international adoption forum I frequent. Her knowledge of Chinese culture and language is invaluable to the group so I emailed her to see if she would look at Fin's Chinese name and help me with it. The answer was an immediate yes and this is what she said:
Hi Leslie.
The scans you sent me are grainy, but your daughter's middle and given name are clearly Mian Mian. The Chinese character is 绵 which has a traditional meaning as a silk thread, soft and/or continuous in nature. When applied as a double name 绵 绵 it most commonly means something continuous and unbroken. Since the doubling of the name is applied in the context of a girl, doubling implies a diminutive meaning and so one could interpret this as little silk thread, or little soft thread.
Not common for a child at all as a name, but that is not unusual for orphanage given names though.
Now, putting on the poetic hat for a moment, as all names given to children are designed to be poetic in nature and meaning; Mian Mian would strike me as "endless thread" or "soft yet endless", or "never ending". I think you get the idea from my examples, and I encourage parents to take some quiet time to hold the name and the basic meanings in their heart and mind and listen to what poetic phrase comes to you. That phrase that comes to you is the phrase that matches your daughter, and very likely reflects something unique about her spirit and personality. I know that can sound a little silly, but trust me it really works.
The surname looks like Lu, and is simply a common surname in China and probably used for all children at your daughter's orphanage. The character chosen in this case is not all that common, though it does tie to a very famous general in Chinese history who used exactly that character for his last name.
N
So much information and guidance! Thank you to N! If you have any thoughts on how her name relates to the bundle of energy and happiness that is now Fin Mian, feel free to post them. This blog allows for anonymous posts, too, if you are shy.
Signed,
Leslie (which means "of the gray fortress")
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