What's in a name?

You ask "what's in a name?" and then proceed to tell me the fact about rose and it being sweet smelling, etc etc etc...yes I know that. If "rose" was called "foobar" from the beginning of time I would be totally happy to say "foobar is my favorite flower" and that "I got 16 pink foobars on my birthday"! That's ok. I don't mind that.


What I do mind is when names of human beings get messed up.


There are so variations in names. For some people, every information about their family and ancestral village is in their names. Take for example, the Sri Lankan pace bowler Chaminda Vaas. Do you know what his full name is like? It's this -
Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas

For the Chinese, their family names come before their given names. Like Fa Mulan means she is "Mulan" from the "Fa" family. In some families in South India, one's father's name get added on and there is no last name as such. Some people have their father's or husband's name as the middle name. There can be so many things in names!

Also, some families like their kids to have elaborate or uncommon and unique ones. Some, on the other hand like short and sweet names that are easier to pronounce. In the US, it seems like all names get too short. Everyone had a formal given name but they don't go by those. James becomes Jim, Matthew is Matt, Ben never likes to be called Benjamin, Abigail is shortened to Abby and then further to Ab...!! So for someone with a Sanskrit name as myself it is really difficult.

The main problem with my name is the clash between Sanskrit and Bengali. It's written as Sayari but pronounced as Shayori or Shy-o-re. The mess is because in Sankrit we have the "S" pronunciation, but in Bengali that becomes "SH". Also, people who say "S" instead of "SH" in Bengali are laughed at. So by no means do I like the actual pronunciation of my name.

To talk of names, I do need to mention Bengali names. I think Bengalis are most innovative in naming their children and also try their best to be creative. The names which are still quite common in other parts of India have been eradicated from the Bengali name database almost a  century back. Liberals that we are, we hardly ever have names of gods and goddesses. Rabindranath paved the way for these creative names. Some of his creations which are widely used now are names like Amartya, Ajeyo and Sohini. Some names are concatenated from that person's parents names. That is also very nice. My cousin is named Dipanjan after his father Dipak and mother Anjana. Another relative is named Sambit as a combination between Soma and Amit. I love unique names. Oh, did I say they have to be Sanskrit as well? Yes, and should have meaning. Like this one - Devakalpa. That's one of the most awesome names I have ever heard. It befits the unique person who is named so :-)


I think people with uncommon names are very possessive about their names. I truly feel we should patent or copyright them. The idea of anyone else named Sayari makes me go mad!!! (No, I'm not being mean!) 


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