the naming rights of my kids, by my friend viju

sunkan · May 1, 2007

Parents have the ultimate weapons to make or mar their kids for good when they christen them. Imagine being named Protius Duxbury…or Lee Bum Suk…or even Mary Christmas!
What is the general criteria for naming your offspring? Down South it is all clear cut. The first born son gets the name of the paternal grandfather, the second one, the name of maternal grandfather…The third son gets the name of father’s grandfather…and so goes the tradition, delving deep into the roots of the family tree for reference!

Once in a while, parents with a penchant for trendsetting, name their kids after their favourite personalities…Thus we have quite a few Khushboos and Simrans growing up in the Tam- Bram households which were used to raising Annapoornis and Sambhalakshmis…
Subhamoy Das reports that Arjun is the most favourite Indian name among the Indians in the US and Maya, the most opted girl’s name…in 2004!

In Kerala you will find a lot of Lenins and Stalins …even Jawahars…but they belong to a different generation. Today you find a the state dotted with Sanjanas, Adityas, Saniyas, Vishnus and whatnots.

But kids with traditional names do face a lot of flak…especially at schools and colleges. Imagine being called Mrugangamouli…actually one of the names of Lord Shiva…but will the boy have animal magnetism…or end up being called a ‘mrugam’ -animal- by his friends? Like Tarakeswari getting the nick name of Tadakeswari… I had an acquaintance called Saachi…each time she walked along the corridors of our college some boy would get a sneezing bout going Ssssaaachchi! on and on…and on!

So life becomes easier on your kid when she is a mere Shilpa and not a Shishirkana,
or your son is not called Vyomakesh… Imagine the plight of a girl who is called Mrs. Thribhuvanasundari Chinadanaichelvan after marriage!

I am not mocking at any of these names…I have a unique one myself ! Since I was born on the auspicious day of Vijaya Dashami, my grandma named me Vijaya Sarawathi. I doubt if there is another existing being called Vijaya Saraswathi…you’ll find Vijayalakshmis in thousands…but if you come across a vijaya saraswathi, find out if she is my grand daughter first, before claiming success! My woes were tenfold, when my friends at school found out that my full name was Chittoor Kasi Viswanathan Vijaya Sarawathi…( This is what my SSLC records say!) Luckily, on the day of my marriage, my brother applied for my passport in the name of Vijaya Ravi Prakash or my Visas, DL and Medical card would have had funnier names endorsed on them…( Spelling names in English is an Achilles heel with the officials in the Middle East !)

When I begot twin sons…there was a clamouring around for names…Suggestions were aplenty…Ram- Lakshman (though God knows they weren’t twins), Luv – Kush, Saurav- Gaurav…I came across various options of double names for twins…starting from the very filmi Ajay- Vijay to stereo types like Indran- Chandran (yuk) Girish – Harish, Rohit – Mohit etc etc…I was even presented with a book of baby names with wild choices…but what tickled my funnybones were: Karan- Kumbhkaran, Neela Vardhan – Naga Vardhan, Amarendar – Asurendar ( oh my God!) I even came across Sharon and Notsharon…Reminded me of the joke about twins named Peter and Repeter! Finally we settled for Karthik and Kaushik. My Father In Law used to have a ball calling them monikers like Vajravelu- Vadivelu, Akthar Hussain- Anwar Hussain, Chincholkar- Kakhodkar…

Anyway, whatever the name, people will find a way to pick on it…remember the couple who named their daughter Hazel and the way their neighbours commented: “With all the names of saints to chose from, they go and name their daughter after a nut!” I know….You can’t win ‘em all!

I definitely don’t want my grand daughter to be called Vijaya Saraswathi… (I used to pretend to be deaf when my teachers called my full name…till they snapped out a ‘Vijaya’…I love my pet name that has stayed on... ‘Viju’ ... though my teachers refused to call me that saying it is a boy’s name…) So, I shall grant full freedom (…er….if it is sought…) to my sons to name their kids whatever they want…Khushboo…Simran….Penelope Cruz, Halle Berry …David Bekham…even Ronaldinho…which is quite a possibility!
written by my friend viju which made me take notice or her sense of humour and brought to u by sunkan here to IL

raginiprakash · May 1, 2007

Dear Sunkan,

Wow!! Another awesome piece from your friend Viju! I love her sense of humour & style of writing.

The subject especially is of my interest as i love names & to analyse what makes people keep the names they do for their children. It was interesting reading her take on it. What a coincidence i was born on Vijaya Dashami too!! Now, am i glad i wasn't given a name relating to that!!

Though i have an easy enough name to pronounce, i've had my share of funny instances what with myself & my sister having names with a similar ring to it. That made it a lot confusing for our relatives & not to forget our dad too!!

That was such an entertaining read. Thanks for posting!

Cheers!
Ragini

Vidhyathan · May 1, 2007

hi!Sunkan, I thought now parents are turning towards more sanskrit names. They especially look out for the meaning of the name too. When i named my son before 5 years i was poring through all sloka books at home. i thought somehow people are going to make it short and spoil the name. But he never got a pet name. Even a 2 year old calls him as such. And believe it or not even the teachers in his school here in US asked us how we pronounce his name and got it right. Only thing is my son had to remember more letters to spell his name.

radhavenkatesh · May 1, 2007

on the day of naming my child me and my husband had a big discussion on this issue wot to name my son
i already had a big list of names which i searched frm so many books and sahasra namarchanas i thought he wud add his fathers name my fathers name a long list of names of almost all the gods and godesses and finally select one name frm the list i prepared as its customary to have our FILs names for our first son / MILs name for first daughter i was mentally prepared but my husband selecte the name frm the lsit of names i kept ready just saying see he wont like my fathers name , i myslf cant call him with tht name and scold him so y give him tht name and it became a big issue my FIL was upset and later reconsiled .
naturally if the grandparents name is nice sweet and v unique ppl want it and love to be called so
orsle story wud be like vijus.

Abha · May 1, 2007

Hi Sunkan

Your friend has a great sense of humor and she writes realllly well, i must say.

I have always liked names which are unique and have great meanings, not to forget, are short too.

I can completely understand the confusion about the names, me and my sister (not twins) have rhyming names, and there always have been a whole lot of confusion, about who is been called upon. Also in our north there is no particular confusion over the surname, but ours was a surname which was another name, so everytime we used to tell our name to somebody they used to enquire what is your last name ? and then we had to explain them that the seocnd word is the Last name ?

To add to my miseries thiss confusion continued in the passport office also, they printed my full name in the First name column and then to get that corrected i had to stand in the long queue of the Sarkari Daftar... well, can say that, pros and cons of having a unique name and surname... and again after marriage i have got a different surname, never heard of... so the tale continues.

~Abha

sathya · May 2, 2007

hello akka

the real fun is yet to start
what with naming grand children
after grand parents
so the next generation will
find a lot of ramachandrans and subramanyans
jayalakshmis and vaibhavalakshmis

just imagine
dey subramanya
unga abhishek thathavaiyum
archana paatiyayum
sayangalam natti (short for natraj?) thatha
avaathukku varachonnarnu sollu
or adiye varalakshmi
thalaiya pinnara varaikkum attama irukkiya..?
solla maranthutten..unnoda chella amit thatha
athaandi neela vella thaadi vechundu iruppaare
avar unna toy shoppukku varachonnar
etho bommai vaanganumam

todays names are modern
and once they take a u turn
the kids will get old names
\and the ageing mod names...

viju enna solra?

sathya