I believe we have settled on a first name for our little “about-to-be-adopted” boy…

Samuel

The middle/Korean name will be determined by my Dad. Per our family tradition, the eldest head of the family is responsible to define the name that the children will take — it’s kinda of like a prefix that has some generation identifiers.

But I have a minor dilemma…

While I like the name Samuel and Sam, I’m all about the nickname. Ashleigh likes to call him Sammie or Sammy, and that’s cool. But what I really wanted to call him was Sam-bo.

However, Eric informs me that “sambo” is a potentially racial slur/stereotype for people of very dark skin (African, Carribean, Asian, etc).

I guess it would be better all the way around if I *didn’t* call him something that would more than likely offend someone. As Eric put it, “it’s cute, but you might get a few looks yelling “Hey, Sambo!” at Six Flags.”

I think he’s right.

So… what kinds of cool nicknames would you give to a kid named Samuel?

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“So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son.
She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the LORD for him.’” [1
Samuel 1:20, NIV]

It is an English, French, and German name of Hebrew origin. Samuel’s meaning is God has heard; asked of God. Derived from the elements ‘shama’ meaning to hear ; ‘el’ meaning God, powerful ; ‘shaul meel’ meaning asked
of God. Shemuel (Hebrew) and Shmuel (Hebrew) are original forms of
Samuel. The name could be of the Hebrew Shemuel or Shmuel, from the elements ‘shama’ and ‘el’, or else as a contraction of the Hebrew ‘shaul meel’.

[from: babynamespedia.com]