What is your name???

As soon as the child is conceived the parents, grand parents and other kith and kin crack their brains to find a suitable name for the child to be born. The child is born and the name is finalized to the pleasure of some and to the displeasure of others. But finally the chosen name is solemnized. On the naming ceremony the name is whispered into the ears of the child by the father, priest or the head of the family. This name is called by everyone fully for few days. After some days the name gets trimmed and abbreviated, expanded or changed according to the convenience of the caller. The child is also given   nicknames.

Nick names are familiar or humorous or cruel name given to a person. It can also be the familiar or truncated form of the proper name. Nicknames are usually awarded to, not chosen by the recipient. Nicknames may be based on a person's various attributes. Attributes may refer to a person's occupation, social standing, or title, can be a descriptor of a physical characteristic or the opposite of a physical characteristic or allude to a person's apparent intelligence.

I just did a survey of how the baptized name changes in course of time. Let me first state about me, my baptized name is Padma but my nick name was Paddy in college and PS in my work place.

My husband is known as Shankar but I realized after few days of marriage that he will respond faster if called CR (his initials). It goes on like that in my family I am sure it happens in every family.

Let’s see how the calling names gets truncated:

Joseph becomes ‘jo’

Prema becomes ‘Prem’

Saraswathi becomes ‘Saschu’

Srinivasan becomes ‘Seenu’

Gurupreet becomes ‘guru’

Shanmugan becomes ‘sham’

Ramachandran becomes ‘Ram’ and so on …………..(you may add )

Let’s see some nick names that I heard from my friends and family members:

Parotta master.

Noodles mandai,

gill gill ramani,

excise ram,

left and right (for a pair of twins),

Lachu,

Thondhi Krishnan,

Anaikutty,

Sarakku mama,

mamyee dinesh,

military mama,

payaru ramu,

clerk raju,

compounder ramu,

kutti karadi,

flush out (the person sprays saliva while talking…),

Chuchu master,

Ayyamma correspondent,

sottai thalain,

company Krishnan,

chamathu kodam,

asathu

maruthi sandeep,

psycho sunderam,

pincha prashmandaiya,

thavalai vayu,

tractor babu,

anakutti venkateswaran,

attu gopali,

mokka chami,

thavakallai,

cindies meena,

ottaivai,

bulldozer bala,

speed muthu,

kodukai,

Xman,

bracket mama,

biology kannan,

ration kadai kannan,

tsunami mandaiya,

piles murugan,

kurudan,

kathi balu

mokka mani,

kapi raju,

bajji krishan,

awinpaal sunder,

kannadi nissam,

nokia karthick,

chappai natarajan,

kosumbi,

malaria ambi,

karuppu shreya,

yerimallai lokesh,

thanda choru,

vazhapoo appu,

kossu rama,

chokkan vishwanathan,

pokiri satish,

hard core vijay fan,

kittathu mani,

contract narayanan,

attapadi George,

ammandi mohan,

bug rajaram,

tortoise deepika,

jailor ambi,

ramachu,

mottai mama,

pollachi puyal,

pulsar parveen,

sanghi munghi …….. Oh My God this is such a small sample.

Some times nick names are nice to hear but some are very cruel. The person who is given the nickname may not even know what people name them behind their back!!!!.

Now the child as he or she grows up does not like his name or the way it is spelt. He or she opts to change, or add or delete alphabets – eg., bala selva kumari became balakumari.

Parents also after consulting the numerologist or astrologist, change the name of the individual especially during his or her marriageable age, or to secure the prophesied good luck. Applications are sent in to the gazette and the new name change is registered. After marriage the girl’s maiden name is changed. Some times the groom’s family baptizes a new name to the bride as per the custom of the family.

Some have two names one pet name at home and another official name. A friend of mine got an alliance, her father went to the office asking for the name told to him, the manager checked the attendance and said  a person with such a name was not working in that office.  Later he came to know that it was the prospective groom’s pet name!!!!

Some people also have pen names to hide their original identity….Sujatha, Randor guy.

Old fashioned names are change to suit the modern times ….C S Venkatachalam became C S V Chalam

People also use home or village name to their name……….Lalgudi Jayaraman…..

So now what is your name????


Some comments that I received on this :
how did you forget kuttipisasu. PR has my name kp only in her mobile. padma you are always a alagana ratchasi. 
regards, 
sumathi.

rathna becomes rathi..
on 13.04.2012,there was an interview telecasted by ESPN tv channel of EINSEIN NAPOLEON.The caption stated that as "What IS In A name?.they asked Why is it EInstein?.I told them about Thanthai periyar naming people after places,legend"s name etc.how my husband got his name and so on,,also my father's connection with ALBERT EINSTEIN.it will be uploaded in the youtube.i will tell u okk...

Hey  Padu.... this is very interesting and as for my name... my friends during my College days prefer to call me Sha.. my parents and family call me Shanthu .... At my school here in NZ.. my students take great pleasure in calling me, Ganesh... Sunder's school friends ..call him Mozhi Sunder... because he has big eyes and often a blank expression... I call him Chund....

Cheers

Shanthy

Dear Padma

Nice one as usual! Baptized is a Christian religious ritual ours is called Namakaranam. Was corrected wen Gita was named in US!! 

Take care keep writing

Love

Priya