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[Opinions] Youtuber Family Sib set: Zay, Anthony, Luke, Isabella and Bella
Back Story! This is a foster / adoptive single dad. He doesn't show or name most of the foster children he's had in his care except a girl, Bella, that he has had since birth, but still blurs her face for privacy. Bella is the biological sister of both Luke and Isabella. Luke and Isabella were formally adopted last winter. Their birth names had been Skylar and Ryder but upon their adoption were given the choice to change their names if they so choose. Both children opted to change their full names and not just their last. Skylar chose Isabella Abigail (FN MN) and Ryder chose Luke. I'm inclined to believe they chose these choices due to Disney / Star Wars connections. Though sweet they got to choose their own names, I'm curious why no one thought to deter Isabella from picking a name so close to her sister Bella? Perhaps they had but she was determined. At any rate, at least she is happy with it. Honestly, Luke and Isabella are pretty solid names for children to pick out. Perhaps if Bella is adopted someday as well maybe she'll pick something different? lol. Zay (legally 20, uncertain exact age)
Anthony (18)
Isabella Abigail / formally Skylar (9)
Luke / formally Ryder (8)
Bella (3) What do you think of these names? If you were adopted as a child, what would you have changed your name to? I can say with 100% certainty if I was adopted between 6 to 12, I would have most definitely picked Angelina like Angelina Ballerina (yes, the mouse). I was certain I was more an Angelina in personality.
*Yes, eventually my love of Angelina evolved into a love of Evangelina and settled on Evangeline.Please rate my "Names I would Use" list & "Backup Favorites" list. Feel free to rate some of my other lists too if you have the time.
https://www.behindthename.com/pnl/223226/138473
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Replies

Zay - It's definitely short, but the Z sound keeps it from being completely insubstantial.
Anthony - I like this (but only Anthony, not Tony)
Isabella Abigail - The combo doesn't work, but the names are fine on their own. Skylar sounds like a boy to me and Isabella sounds hyperfeminine, so maybe this fits her personality more. I also think Isabella is too close to Bella. Her nickname would have to be Isa or Izzy (or Abby?)
Luke - Good but I prefer Lucas. I wonder what his middle name is.
Bella - It's fine, it technically doesn't need to be short for anything, but it feels more tame and blunt than longer names like Isabella and Annabella. If I changed my first name at 9 I think I would have been Ivy, Willow, or Miranda.
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Maybe Isabella wanted to name herself in honour of her younger sister? A foster kid might be interested in strengthening family connections like that. I don't see anything wrong with it. I like Zay a lot. It's fun. If I had been able to change my name at around 9 years old, I probably would have chosen Clara, Sylvia, Cassidy, or Anastasia. I remember loving those names back then.
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I like all except Zay. I like that he adopted older kids, that’s really nice.
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Why in the world would they have siblings named Isabella and Bella? That's awful. Skylar is much better than Isabella.If I were adopted as a child, I probably would've named myself Raina.
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Zay is ... what? Male, female, just an initial with two letters tacked on?
Anthony is an excellent name, but I'd use Antony rather than risk people pronouncing -th- as in thistle.
Isabella Abigail will never be able to lie about her age! She should have been told, in advance, to stay away from biological-family names. Or, encouraged to choose Abigail Isabella instead. She was right to shed the awful Skylar, like a bird without a tail.
Luke is an all-right name I suppose, but having once met a very young one who was known as Pukey Lukey, I've cooled towards it considerably.
Bella. There are two 19th-century Bella people on my family tree; at least one of them was an Isabella who went by her nn. We adopted a very pretty Schnauzer and named her Bella-Bark; unfortunately she was permanently traumatised and couldn't be reassured. She ran away if anyone held or touched a broom, a spade, a rake, a feather-duster ... and one day she was so terrified by a garden spade that she jumped a very high fence, ran into the rush-hour traffic, and died. Very sad story in so many ways.
I might have chosen to be Alice or Lucy if I'd been adopted. If I could have chosen my own name while remaining in my own family, I'd have become Cecily Beatrice after my parents, or possibly Cecily Beatrice Anne.
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In all honestly if Skylar was instead Skylark I would be a lot more open to it lol 😆 I'm a sucker for unusual bird names and Skylark appeals to me in a GP kinda way
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Letting young kids pick new names for themselves is a nice idea on paper, but I think it's risky in practice; kids change their minds very easily, and they don't/can't think very far ahead.
I think Skylar should definitely have been prevented from using Isabella, at the very least prevented from using it for a fn. (I would have changed Bella's name myself when she was too little to notice; Bella is a name for a dog or a cat.)Luke is all right, and I really like Anthony. Zay is just a sound to me.I do know a pair of biological brothers in their thirties who were adopted by their foster parents when they were about six and eight or thereabouts. They were give the option of new first and/or middle names as well. One preferred to keep his name, and the other asked to become Tom Jr, after his adoptive father. He was already called by his initials, TJ, so the initials and nn stayed the same.
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That's actually a really cute story about TJ
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