What’s in a name, when ‘Sadhu’ is not pious and Whisky cannot be drunk? By the way, Whisky is my pet’s name. Difficult to understand? Try this? I am Seshadri, my father Krishnamani and my grandfather Seshadri again. Simple indeed? My mother once explained me the rationale behind naming of children in Tambram families. The eldest child is named after the paternal grandparent, depending on the gender and the second one could either be after the maternal grandparent if the second one happens to be of the same gender as the first one or it would be the other grandparent’s name, if of a different gender. Apparently, it was required since the names are particularly to remembered on occasions such as Amavasya, or the day of the new moon, when elders are remembered and the male progeny performs religious rites for the three generations before him.
In India, each region follows a different method for naming kids, especially in South India? Someone might say, not anymore, since commonly found names these days are Arun, Akash, Priya, Raj (SRK), and so on, which is very common, but definitely not so distinct as Subramaniam, Unnikrishnan, Lakshminarayana, where the state of each of them could be easily identified, even before they spoke a word, which in anycase is distinct?
Sikhs have a different concept. We could find male Tejinder or female Tejinder, the male would be Singh and the female would be Kaur? Malayalis usually have their house names as their surnames. One would find, Puthenveetils ( one from the new house) in plenty, though the house referred would have been in existence since last 50 years or so. But the surname continues, since Puthenveetil cannot be changed to Pazhayaveetil (one from the old house) in one stroke of a pen indeed.
Apart from the distinct names, I have observed that people from Andhra can also be identified by the number of initials, RSVS, TVNLN etc. I wonder why? India is truly a union of states, where each region has its unique flavor, unique in every which way, Names are one amongst them? I can go on writing on this uniqueness of India, but for the time being I stop.
Kumar Anna!!!
ReplyDeleteDidn't know you blogged!!!
Nice post. Yes India is truly amazing the way it names people.
Another trend in how names are given is by naming people after their occupation- Baltiwalla, Attarwalla, Tijoriwalla etc...of course these are surnames, but very similar to the western surnames like Smith, Baker, Mason etc. That practice originally ame up because when there were 2 ppl in a village with the same first name- easiest way to tell them apart was tp refer to their occupation while speaking of them.
--- Mythili (theprincessediaries.wordpress.com)