The meaning behind her name

Every child who comes from China and I suspect other countries as well come with a name that was theirs before they were ours. Our new daughter is no exception.. I wanted to take a moment and explain her name that she is coming to us with and the name that we have chosen for her....

Her Chinese Name

In China she was given the name Zhan Ci Mei, a beautiful name don't you think? The Chinese write their names differently then we do her in the states. Zhan is actually the last name and this is the last name of all of the children that spent time at the Zhanjiang city Social Welfare Institute (SWI). In Chinese the Pin Yin word can mean many different things based on the pronunciation of the word. When translating her name you really have to look at the Chinese Character of her name to get the real meaning. In Our daughters case Ci is her first name and it means admirable or kind... Mei means plum blossom. Mei can also mean little sister but that is not the Chinese Character that was on her paperwork, Plum Blossom is. We have been calling our daughter Mei Mei for some time when we talk to Sophia about her because she will in fact be Sophia's Mei Mei (Little Sister), and Sophia will be her Jie Jie (GeGe) or Big Sister. I think the meanings behind our daughters Chinese name is beautiful just like she is....

Her English Name

We have chosen an English name for her and it will be Amelia Grace. We have also decided to include part of her Chinese name with her English name in the same way we did for Sophia. There are many different feelings about including the chinese name in their english name. There is no right or wrong just personal choice and this is what we have chosen for both of our girls. We want them to have a piece of their Chinese name...Sophia is Sophia Joy Jinte Rizzo and Amelia will be Amelia Grace Cimei Rizzo both beautiful names for two beautiful girls..

When we picked the name Sophia it was a name that was not popular back in 2005, but a name we both loved. While we waited for Sophia visited my father on that trip we told him we would be adopting a little girl from China. Shortly after telling him about the adoption we began to talk about names for the baby when right out of the blue he suggested the name Sophia, without knowing we were seriously considering it. My father passed away shortly after that trip but a piece of him will always be with us in Sophia because of her name. In Amelia's Case we wanted to keep with a classic and find something that would go with Sophia and our last name Rizzo. So after many names and consideration we decided on Amelia (Riz's great grandmothers name) for her first name. Her middle name will be Grace (Riz's Grandmothers name was Grace on his fathers side).

So , Amelia Grace Cimei Rizzo is our new daughter's name....