What’s in a Name?

Hello all, am back again :-) The month gone by has been very eventful with lots of travel and it brought its own share of good news :-)  

Coming to this post, I’m sure we all would have come across this question – What’s in a name?

I am asking you the same – What’s in a name? 

Well, so many things. First of all, how are we named? Do we know the meaning of our names?  

There’s more to it than meets the eye.

Gone are the days when the child is named after the grandparent. Today we have people scouting for unique names for their children. Their efforts have borne fruit too for today we have kids with very unique names.

When we look into the names, we only see how it sounds. We don’t really look into its meaning. Every name has to mean something. 

Really?

Oh, yeah!

Until a year ago, I really didn’t know what my name really meant. I knew that I was named “Ashwin”, ‘cause I was born on the day of “Ashwini” star according to the Tamil Calendar. So I thought that my name means the Ashwini star. That was when I chanced upon this book called “The Penguin Book of Hindu Names” by Maneka Gandhi in an airport. Curiously, I turned the pages to see if my name was present. It was and that was when I got to know the actual meaning of my name. It means “a person who rides on the back of a horse” :-) I am pretty sure that my parents didn’t know that too when they named me :-)  Well, it was some sort of a revelation for me. That’s when I started to look into what names meant. Some names are straightforward in meaning like Surya, Aditya, Roshni, etc. Whereas some names have a  meaning that could be made out from the name itself. Eg. “Anamika” means a person with no name :-) Funny :-) There are also names like Ashwin where the meaning is not apparent in the name but hidden within in the language of origin (Sanskrit in this case) :-)

Surname:

While there’s no trouble with the names, it’s the surname that’s a real cause for concern. In our country, it so happens that in 75-80 pc of the cases, the surname reveals more than what’s necessary or to put it differently, it gives away the bio-data of a person. 

Casteism is a big bane in our country. And in most parts of the country, it’s the caste name that is taken as a surname. Be it a Patel or a Sharma or a Menon or a Dutt or a Banerjee, they’re all caste names. So as soon as you hear the full name of a person, you can make out which part of the country he/she’s from, which caste he/she belongs to, what were their ancestors like, whether they’re from the so-called forward community or the oppressed classes, what their characteristic traits will be like, etc.  I am not exaggerating in any way. It’s true that our country has been divided on these lines to such a great extent that people can judge you so much just by knowing your caste and their task is made simpler if your name gives it away. 

In that sense, I do feel proud that I belong to a state where this practice has been done away with. Yes, in Tamilnadu, that system is non-existent. Gone were the days when you could find a Periasamy Thevar or a Velu Naicker or a Chinnappa Gounder loitering down the streets. Yes. Even now they are present but they  must all be over  50 years of age. No youngster in Tamilnadu these days is given a caste name as his/her surname. 

This being the case, I find it peculiar why certain youngsters especially from the so-called forward castes take pride in attaching their caste names as their surnames. Please don’t mistake me. I belong to one such so-called forward castes  too and it really pains me to see when people, that too youngsters, doing this with pride. 

Once back when I was in Orissa, I explained to a colleague with pride that in my state, people don’t attach their caste names to their names. All it took for him was to scan through my Facebook friends list and prove me wrong. And believe it or not, all the people he pointed out to prove me wrong were all people from the so-called forward castes who had attached their caste names as their surnames. And worse still was the fact that many of them did not have their caste names attached in their official names but took pride in doing so very openly for the world to see in Facebook. I really don’t understand why. Be it a Niranjan Iyengar or a Varshini Iyer or a Mahalakshmi Iyer, I only found these so-called forward caste people doing this. I could not find a single Rajesh Gounder or a Sandeep Thevar or a Prakash Chettiar anywhere online or offline.

Again, don’t mistake me. As I said, I belong to one of those so-called forward castes and the pain I felt when I realized that it was my own brethren who were doing this in an otherwise model state in this aspect, is what is making me say all this even if it’s been more than a year since that day.

So my request to every one of you, irrespective of who you are, is that please refrain from giving a caste name to your ward’s name. If you’ve been officially named with your caste name, nothing can be done but you can limit the use of your surname atleast.

For fellow youngsters who have attached their caste names to their names, please stop doing so. It’s not a matter of pride to let the world know of your caste that too through your name. There is absolutely no pride in showcasing your caste, no matter whichever the so-called high caste you belong to. No caste is high or low. And let me tell you that broadcasting your caste to the world is not going to earn you any brownie points but it will only make everyone look down upon you as a casteist. Casteism is one of the prime ills of our society and to get rid of it, we youngsters should lead the way. Never mind what the person next to you is doing. You can be the change. You can show the way. Let the generations to come atleast refrain from using their caste identity in their everyday life. 

The Naming System:

In Tamilnadu, we follow this practice of giving an initial to the actual name of the child. The initial is usually the first letter of the father’s name. Now increasingly the first letter of the mother’s name is also being used as initial.

But a more pragmatic approach of naming a child would be to attach the parent’s name to the child’s name. This is the standard approach that has been followed throughout the globe.  If named that way, then there would be no confusion when the child’s passport is being issued. Thanks to Facebook, more and more people are starting to follow this practice of naming.  And I have to thank my parents who were intelligent and futuristic enough to think and name me that way. In “Ashwin Murali”, Ashwin is my name and Murali is my dad’s name. There were quite a few people in my school who were named this way like Chandrashekar Anand or Aishvarya Ananth. 

When I was in Orissa, people used to ask me if I belong to a caste called “Murali” and I used to answer in the negative and explain the naming system in Tamilnadu to them with pride. My pride took a hit on that particular day. Sigh. Ever since that day, I could not explain with the same pride knowing that there are people who atleast on the outset, look casteist. 

A confusion may arise as to why only the father’s name. No issues there. It’s perfectly normal to attach the mother’s name too and people have started doing that. 

And staying on the topic of mother, the obvious question next would be about women taking their husband’s name for a surname. Not at all necessary, I say. It’s completely a matter of choice and I am definitely against women changing their official names in the records. Here again I’d cite the example of my mom who retained her official name in all records. It’s only in Facebook that she has my dad’s name attached to her name and that again is a matter of personal choice.

 I recently spoke to a friend (a senior) who got married. I asked him about his wife’s changed name in Facebook. He told me that he made it clear to her that he doesn’t want her official name to be changed in anyway. But he had this long-cherished dream of seeing his name attached to his wife’s name in Facebook  and he spoke to her about it and requested her to do so just for a month if she wishes. LOL. She readily obliged and even though it’s been more than a month, the name has remained that way and when he told her that she could revert to her old name, she gave him a stern look and asked if that wouldn’t look odd to the world around. LOL. True indeed :-)  Doing that now would make people think that they have separated :-) He realized that and left the matter to her and she’s perfectly happy with her new name even if it’s only in Facebook. I realized that in this case, everything was a matter of personal choice except that sheepish request that he made initially. Cute couple they are :-)

In another case, I remember a friend joking that his brother would now change his name by attaching his wife’s name to his name now that he got married :-)  LOL :-D Yes, that could happen a lot in the future too. Infact, I know a person who has his wife’s name behind his name in Facebook. I even asked him once about it and he calmly replied “What’s wrong in that? She’s everything for me and it’s the least I could do to her even if it’s just Facebook.” :-)  Made perfect sense.  Again a matter of choice :-)

Let me finish with this one incident that I remember. When the anti-reservation protests were happening in the country against the OBC quota in higher educational institutions, all the students in IIT Kanpur changed their surnames to “Bharat” (the country’s name) as they did not wish to be divided along the lines of caste. Excellent, I felt.

Guess that’s enough for now.

I have refrained from dealing with caste-based naming system in the rest of the country in this post as I felt that I require a deeper understanding of the system there before I can talk about/condemn those. 

It is for the same reason that I have refrained from talking about the naming systems in other religions as it would not be appropriate for me to talk about it unless I have a deeper understanding/affiliation.

Forgive me if you felt offended in any way reading this post but understand that these are my humble opinions and I wish to talk straight from the heart,  atleast in my written word. 

Cheers :-)

-Ashwin Murali

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are strictly the author’s personal views and are not intended to offend any particular caste/community/religion in any way. Also the names used in this post are completely fictional and any resemblance to any person dead/alive is purely coincidental.

PS: Chandrashekar and Aishvarya are the only real names that I have used in this post. So Chandru or Aishu, if you read this, please don’t  mind that I used your names without permission. :-)

PPS: My future wife, whoever you are,  let me assure you that I leave the naming issue completely to your choice J So let this not deter you in any way ;-) ;-) ;-) But please don’t change my Facebook name, ok? ;-) ;-)  :-)