Juliet : “ What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
Such a dialogue comes in well celebrated work of William Shakespeare “Romeo and Juliet”. Is it true? What’s not in a name? Why there is so much gaga over a name.
Recently I had a friend fathered a lovely boy. I asked him to name him “Abhimanyu”. It means someone who is intelligent and sharp minded. My logic also was about name starting with alphabet “A”. Having suffered whole of my life, for having name starting with “tail ender” alphabet “V”, the name for the newbie also explained his luxury to have things at first. Moreover Abhi would be pet name so easy to be pronounced.
But I had to face other side of the story. The name Abhiamanyu was straight away rejected coz, in Mahabharata he was killed in his puberty suggesting such a name would be inauspicious for the baby. However, this threw me into deep sea of thoughts. First of all, it was because of Arjuna’s absence Abhimanyu had to enter Chakravyuha, that too with permission from his uncle Yudhistira. Second, it’s completely ill of us to relate to a name to a mythological character. Just imagine, if a person is named “Krishna”, does his uncle be “Kamsa” ? Or if a person is “Rama” ,his father is married to three women?
What is the logic when a guy named “Ganapathy” marries some “Gauri” ? Or some lady named “Seetha” giving birth to child named “Ram” ? I remember a person whose name was “Prahlad”. Does it mean his father was Rakshas “Hiranya Kashipu” ?
All these thoughts would end me up in a rib tickling Ha ha ha ha.
Names are now meant not just for addressing persons any more. It goes beyond that. Sunil Shetty became Suniel shetty, Hari Om Rajeev Bhatia into Akshay Kumar, Yusuf Khan turned into Dilip Kumar and another Dilip Kumar was renamed to music director Allah Rakha Rahman ( AR Rahman). Someone changed their names to hide their identity or religion, someone for acknowledging their new faith, someone believe in numerology and someone for easy vocalization. Does anyone remember “Vernakula Suriya Pathapathaje Usantha Joseph ” as their name’s initials or just as “Chaaminda Vaas” the srilankan who had ousted Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar numerous times.
I don’t know how far this is true. I was told that, in Sikhism, new baby is named by the first word from the page, the Guru opens of “The Guru Grantha Sahib”. Funnily in case of Navjot singh sidhu and his wife ( who is Navjot Kaur) , the opened page was same and same word “Navjot” was referred. In another strange case, father was Brahmin and mother was a catholic Christian so their son became “ Alan Bhat”. So much constructive approach in naming was about one person who was named “Samvedan” (means sensitivity). This mentioned individual’s grand pa was “SANjeeva” , father was “VEnkatesh” and mother was “vanDANa”. The name was compounded by capitalised letters of listed names. !!
Calling names is again one more “in” thing amongst youth. In his childhood, one of my friend was big fan of the then kannada movie star Ambareesh, people used to call him Ambareesh so much so that none knew his real name. One more funny incident was, our temples used to have supervisors who were addressed as “Patali”s (traditional designation system). Naughty kids would call their sons as “Patali Putra”s. I too was addressed with an odd name “Shakti” :P ( the story is too immaturish, too shy to share here ). My principal’s initials were S.Y.K, who was always referred as (PSYCH) secretly.
Don’t you now feel that there is really something in names?
Yes, each individual wants his brand ! he wants it to be unique, un-common, stylish and powerful.So it has to start with his name. It can even make or break a person’s career. All the Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Khans, Kapoors or Mallyas have already carved a niche. First names are not really needed!
Here are some of my suggestions when you want to pick a name
1. Have starting letter from first 5 alphabets. This would help the child to have things falling at first place as the world is so much crazy to order alphabetically.
2. Look up for its real meaning (in popular language ), never ignore the eaning for its attractive fancy phonetics.
There was a girl named “Suvidha” ( which means facility ) !
3. Have the name short and pronunciation simple. A no no for the following
“ Ramagopalanathan subramanian Aravinda Acharya” it takes years to figure out first name.
4. See for the chosen name or its derivatives, for any derogatory/obscene/stupid meaning applicable
For example in English speaking countries, the Indian name “Hardik” is crazily laughed at.( find the reason yourselves).
5. Try to have a name which is fresh and not much heard.
Not just for his looks, his name too added to Hrithik Roshan’s star value.
Once Akbar demands to know from courtiers about most funny incident one has come across in their lives. Each courtier tells his share of incidents, anecdotes to please the emperor. But emperor looks less interested.
Now, it comes the turn of Birbal, the pet courtier of Akbar. Birbal, asks Akbar to come for a walk, in disguise. All Akbar has to do is to observe people and ask their name.
First they will encounter a beggar whose name was Lakshmi Putra ( Son of Godess of Wealth). Then they will see a person dead. Funnily the person who had died was named Amar (Eternity) and lastly they will see a blind woman whose name is “Sunayana” (Lady with beautiful eyes).
Akbar and Birbal return to palace, all laughing. !
