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What’s in a name?

A new identity You could choose to be someone completely different with just a change in your name

“O, be some other name!

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Ever wished your name was different? Ever wondered, like Gogol in “The Namesake”, what your parents were thinking when they chose your name? Ever felt, like Juliet in Shakespeare’s famous verse, that life would be easier had you or a loved one a different name?

If you have, you’re not alone. Every week, a few hundred people register with the Government to have their names changed. Every week, a Gazette comes out announcing those changed names. And then over the course of the next week, a few hundred more want another name.

Take Jaya. She was 10 years old when she decided she hated her name. She was named Ramkumari by her parents. Unfortunately, that got shortened to “Ram” as she grew up, and she got mercilessly teased in school.

“The other children used to say I looked like a boy and that’s why ‘Ram’ suited me,” she recalls. So one day, she came home and told her parents she wanted a different name. And she knew what her new name should be too: ‘Jayabharath’ was the name of her father’s company, and ‘Lakshmi’ was the name of her favourite grandmother, and so, “Jayabharath Lakshmi” she would be.

“They changed it right away,” she says. The only problem? She found her new name a bit too long to fit the labels on her notebook. So, Jayabharath Lakshmi came to be known as Jaya in school and later at college. At home, she remains Ram to this day.

Any parent knows deciding on a name for your child is tough. And sometimes, parents can end up reconsidering the name they choose. Bhuvaneshwari, for example, was originally named Tiruveni, based on her birth star. But then her parents began to wonder if it was too old-fashioned. Until she was one-and-a-half, the family collectively brooded over the question of the baby’s name. Then, one day a swamiji at a pooja suggested her name be changed to Bhuvaneshwari as it would bring her wealth and prosperity. That was that.

“The funny thing is, 30 years later, ‘Bhuvaneshwari’ is considered old-fashioned,” she says with a laugh. “Tiruveni shortened to ‘Tiru’ might actually be considered trendy now!”

Arundhika, a teacher, changed her name at the age of 34 for one of the most common reasons — numerology. Plagued by years of ill-health, Arundhika (then called Lakshmi) was at the end of her tether. Finally, she visited an astrologer who told her that her name added up to the number eight, which was bad for her, and suggested she change her name.

“I chose Arundhika from the names he recommended and wrote the new name 36 times a day for 108 days,” she says. She adds she’s been in better health ever since the change: “It’s a matter of belief. It’s not as if I’ve been magically cured. But my faith has made me better than before.”

That the new name came late in her life caused some problems though. Initially, she wouldn’t respond when people called her Arundhika. “I had to concentrate at first,” she says, laughing. “Now, I don’t respond to Lakshmi!”

For some, the change is purely functional. Take Mahadevan Balasubramaniam, a scientist who moved to the U.S. back in 1968. When his wife Lalitha began to practise law, she chose to shorten her last name to “Mani” to make things easier for her clients. When the family applied for citizenship in 1987, Mahadevan decided to change his and his children’s last names to “Mani” as well.

Overthe years, “Mahadevan” became shortened to “Dev”, an easy nickname for Americans to use. And so it was that “Mahadevan Balasubramaniam” became “Dev Mani”.

“I probably wouldn’t have changed my name if my wife hadn’t changed hers in the first place,” he muses. “But ‘Dev Mani’ certainly is easier to deal with.” An unexpected result of the change? He’s occasionally mistaken for Jewish American. “It turns out both ‘Dev’ and ‘Mani’ can be Jewish names,” he says with a smile.

So, if you don’t like your name, be someone else. The new name may take some getting used to and it may have some unexpected side-effects. But at least you will have chosen who you are!

DIVYA KUMAR

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