About Alyson's name

Alyson's Chinese name, Qian Wen, was given to her, as far as we know, by her orphanage staff. There are a few different Chinese characters for both Qian and Wen so it has taken us a little bit of research to figure out what her name means.

Here are the actual characters for her version of Qian Wen:

From what we can gather, the first character (Qian) means delicately pretty and the second character (Wen) means beautiful clouds. We originally thought it meant refinement or culture but that character is slightly different.

By the way, QianWen is pronounced "Chee-ann One"

About her English name...

We chose Alyson because I've always loved that name and the potential nickname Aly. My very best friend growing up was named Alyson. We've lost touch over the years but I have wonderful childhood memories of her and think of her often still.

We chose Mary as a middle name in honor of Michael's mom. He was just a toddler when she passed away but she is still very loved and much talked about in the family.