What's in a name?

Cheeniya · Jun 4, 2007

What's in a Name?

I can imagine how stressed Juliet must have been feeling when she lamented, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by another name would smell as sweet!” It is not like her to make such thoughtless statements otherwise. A very sensible girl if you ask me but fully capable of losing her head completely whenever Romeo was in sight. Nothing wrong in it per se` except that it made her come out with such thoughtless statements as the one we have for discussion.

I do not know if you subscribe to Juliet’s view that name is just nothing. I don’t. I think name has a greater role to play than being a mere vehicle for identity. Now wait a minute! In case you jump to the conclusion that I must be one of those numerologists who is trying to wrench a few of your crisp currency notes away from their moorings in return for making some small adjustments to your name that will result in a shower of gold, I hasten to assure you that I am not one. I have noticed that the adjustments they suggest make your name earn a classification under the grotesque and ridiculous! Like calling Shankar as Shungar and Rupali as Roupaelee. Whether such changes enable you to strike it rich or not, they are sure to confuse people about your nationality.

I am here only to join issues with Juliet who seems to think that being a Shakespearean heroine conferred on her the right to make any sweeping statements. I’ll tell you what’s in name.

A few years back, a medical product was introduced in the market. It was widely advertised as a surefire remedy for a particular ailment and the prime slots in the TV channels were full of its ads. But unfortunately, the product did not meet with such success in my part of the country, as you would expect with that kind of hectic ad campaign. I’ll tell you why.

All humans as they pass through their respective lives contract various ailments, some curable and some incurable. What causes these ailments is not of our concern here but suffice it to say that many of them are age related. Hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and the like are all tell tale marks that the passage of time leaves on humans. If you are a successful businessman, you are bound to have hypertension and angina. Thus these ailments have come to be regarded as a kind of status symbol. I have read in history books that the number of scars a soldier bore on his chest distinguished him from the rest of the flock for bravery and combative abilities. Today a successful man is distinguished by the scar left by a bypass surgery on his chest. So there are ailments a man is legitimately proud of and there are ailments that give him an inferiority complex.

The medical product I was talking about earlier was positioned as a sure remedy for itching. Now you will all agree with me that itching is not something you would discuss with your friends over a glass of beer in clubs as you would a bypass. Even when the agony of itching is unbearable you would rather grin and bear it and only when it crosses its limit you would resort to scratching but only in the privacy of a toilet or wherever you can have privacy. It is something you would not confide even in your best of friends. This being so, it is too much to expect a man to go to a medical shop and ask for a product the very name of which exposes his problem to the public. Yes! The product was named ITCHGUARD! Every time someone gathered enough courage to go to the shop and ask for it, he was greeted with a derisive smile by everyone in the shop. So in spite of the product’s ability to contain itching, it did not really take off well.
Now you know the importance of a name. If Aiswarya Rai was named Visalam or Kuchalambal, I am sure she wouldn’t have been half as famous!

sunkan · Jun 4, 2007

hai sri,
i am very well aware of what u say, and i am surprised when u say that this problem does not exist in tamilnadu. I have come across these problems hearing from friends the minute they go to tamil nadu, westbengal, and kerala, and some regions in the north, and i have always opted for a written slip for all those embarrassing stuff to be taken from the medical shops, one such thing is also a ladies problem and it is their napkins, with choosing the brands which were available in those days only there, now we have the supermarket for all the problems, all u need is to go pick it and look away while billing.:2thumbsup: ...regards sunkan

radhavenkatesh · Jun 4, 2007

Name has so much to do . if u see the last decade childrens names we wil knw tht, we dont find names which sounded like our ancestors all new names rahul , trisha disha ,ipsika............. oh god many times i ask them their names with spellings and learn how to spell them also.
i never heard of many names and new spellings but i shd accept all are v new and nice also rather than our boring subbulakshmis , we find subhas and reshmis . my fathers zamana had no option other than having their grandparents names and they liked being named like tht , many of my timers them tell they dint like half part of their names bcz half the name was grand parents and half was theirs they liked theirs and then comes my kids age group we did have a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnng list of name with the name we wanted as a tail and do away wht the long list which was ok and accepted by him the latest names r really superb no complains or ill feelings either on the parents side or kids naturally names are with wot we r identified.
only if luck cud be attached like jayalalitaa along wht tht it wud be great .
Itchguard fellow did a mistake to give so much tv add he shdnt have done tht but shd have promoted it to doctors who wud have given him a profit rather than the amt spent of advt .

Lavanya · Jun 4, 2007

As long as one is afraid of another's judgement of them, there's no hope for them, be it in using a name or in doing an act.
Mr. Sri... the flip side of what you've said is say using any name to call your loved one & they respond because they knows its them (whether or not its a cuss word is a different story).
One should not be limited by their name more so if it totally doesn't suit who you've grown to be rather than who their parents wanted to be.

Sriniketan · Jun 4, 2007

I think that "what is in a name" phrase is applied only to the famous people. It is their fate in this life which makes them famous and not the name. They are famous because of their efforts, either physically or mentally. (they don't understnd it either). If it is in a name, how many are even famous if they are named after a famous person. Their name may make people look back, at once to make sure they are hearing properly. for e.g. if a person is named like our superstar and if that person is introduced in a loud manner everybody will take a look at him to make sure if he is the real superstar we are talking about. If the person in that name becomes famous, that is another issue.
There was a time in Indian cinemas where they changed their original names into a more fashionable one. But that also changed later on like the names of Devayani, Kaushalya, Jayashree, etc. As we have more imported heroines now we hear more of the names from the places they are from.
It is not like because her name is Aishwarya she is famous. If she is in any other name she would have been famous because according to my opinion, it is her fate (thalaiyil azhudhi erukku) and nothing else.:yes: Maybe desperate people who want to be rich and famous and who want to change their present status in any manner choose the option of changing their spelling to suit their ideas.
Sriniketan

AGR · Jun 5, 2007

Dear Cheeniya Sir

The example you have given is an apt example for marketing........but may not be for names.......we would have accepted you as Mr X also, if you had used it instead of cheeniya.......but numerology ...thats something else........but I do agree with you...you cannot just say whats in a name.......All of us would surely loved to be called by our own names only......and if someone pronounces our name wrongly we would immedieately correct them.....and I would be happy to be called as AGR rather than Aishwarya Rai.....

Chitvish · Jun 5, 2007

Dear Sri,
You made a correct observation that a fully sensible girl loses her head completely when her lover is in sight. (Only) in the first flush of love, have we not gone through that experience in our own lives? The name comes secondary; only the person's love is primary !

Name does play a role definitely. Honestly when you first started posting under the name of Cheeniya, I was so prejudiced against that name that I decided not to read posts by a person with a funny username. It was the post on vedanta which made me read your post in spite of that name. Thereafter how I became your ardent fan, is history for both of us ! Perhaps you could have used your name Sri & lead readers to guess whether the writer was a man or a woman !

My friend's husband was Swamy; he changed his name to Suwaamee for reasons of numerology, which guaranteed him great success. He died within a month, sadly !

Name is the only thing over which we have no control, but accept whatever name our parents gave. For parents who have hopefully named their second or third daughter Mangalam, quite often Pallavis, Anupallavis & Charanams are born !

In Madurai side the names Mannangatti, Amavasai, Poochi are all very common. Imagine a person with that name going international at some stage ! Won't he be tempted to change his name first ?

I really wish, I was called Dharmasamvardhani which I was named after my grandmother . I wonder what made my parents switch over to the boring Chithra from a sweet name Dharma !

Love,
Chithra.

Cheeniya · Jun 5, 2007

Dear Sunkan
Loking away when being billed is a good suggestion but when I am in a supermarket, I have this morbid fear of excess billing . I crane my head at the computer while they race through my items. I hide embarrassing items among uppu and puli and have difficulty containing my thudding heart as the girl eventually comes to the item. She stops for a while and gives me a sympathetic look while trying to supress her smile like Prakashraj and Prithviraj while visiting a patient in a hospital in the film Mozhi!
Sri

Cheeniya · Jun 5, 2007

Dear Radha
Till about two generations back, we all accepted our grandparents' names without a grudge. So the same names were getting repeated again and again. Only a generation back, the system of naming a child after the grand parent for the sake of formality and a second name given for all other purposes. The first name is used for performing pojas and archanas. In the wedding invitations, the name appears as Santhanagopalan alias Tarun or Varun etc. But everywhere else he is known only by the second name. If there is nothing in a name, why is this feeling of embarrassment in bearing a very traditional name?
Sri

Cheeniya · Jun 5, 2007

Dear Lavanya
I dont think there is any judgement involved here. Its a question of one's self-confidence. Some people necessarily need a good pep by way of a good name. Moreso, if the name happens to be a very odd one and bearing it could be tougher than bearing a cross!
I agree with you in toto about calling a loved one by all kinds of names. I am reported to be most innovative in that area!
Sri