Do I Get to Name My Baby If I Place Them for Adoption?

By: Grant Kirsh

Yes. You do. At Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C., a family-run Indiana adoption law firm with nearly 50 years of experience, we want you to understand exactly how naming works in an Indiana adoption, so there are no surprises.

At the Hospital, the Name Is Yours

Until you sign the consent to adoption, you are your baby’s parent, and every decision at the hospital belongs to you, including the name. When the original birth certificate is completed, you can give your baby any name you choose. Some mothers pick a name they have carried in their heart for months. Some choose a name with special meaning to pass along a piece of themselves. Some prefer not to name the baby at all, and that is okay too. There is no wrong way.

What Happens to the Name After the Adoption

Here is the honest part. When the adoption is finalized in court, months after placement, a new birth certificate is issued listing the adoptive parents, and the adoptive family chooses the name that appears on it. That is how adoption works legally in Indiana.

But here is what we see in practice, and it is beautiful. Some adoptive families keep the name the birth mother chose, or keep it as the baby’s middle name, as a permanent connection to her. Naming is one of the things you can talk about with the family you choose. In an open adoption, these conversations happen naturally, and most families deeply want to honor the birth mother’s wishes wherever they can.

Talk About It When You Choose Your Family

With more than 100 carefully screened families waiting to adopt through our firm, you have the freedom to raise naming with the families you are considering. Ask them how they feel about keeping a name or a middle name you choose. Their answer will also tell you something about how they will honor you in your child’s life going forward. All of our families commit to letters and photos for at least 18 years at minimum, so whatever name your child carries, you will watch them grow into it.

A Name Is Part of a Story

Whether your chosen name stays on the final birth certificate or lives on as a middle name, a story the family tells, or a private memory between you and your child, it matters. It is one more way your child will always know they came from someone who loved them.

Whether you are in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Carmel, Fishers, Bloomington, Hammond, Gary, Muncie, Lafayette, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Anderson, or Greenwood, we would be honored to help you build an adoption plan that honors every part of your love for your baby, right down to the name. Our services are 100% free to you.

Call or text us at 800-333-5736. Visit us at IndianaAdoption.com. Everything is free and confidential.

For a complete overview of your options, read our guide: Your Options With an Unplanned Pregnancy in Indiana.

About the Author
Grant Kirsh is a second-generation adoption attorney and owner of Kirsh & Kirsh, P.C., a family law firm in Indianapolis, Indiana that has been serving Indiana families since 1981. Grant graduated from Indiana University McKinney School of Law in 2013 and has personally handled nearly 3,000 foster care adoptions and his law firm has handled over 5,000 private newborn adoptions. He practices all forms of domestic adoption, with a deep personal commitment to expectant mothers considering adoption in Indiana and Indiana’s foster care system and the families and children it serves.