A compilation of 46,000 names from the Sangam era was recently released at the 10th Tamil World Conference in Chicago.
The book, Sootti Magizhvom Thamizh Peyargal, was released by the Minister for Tamil Official Language and Culture, ‘Ma Foi’ K. Pandiarajan.
The conference was organised by the International Association of Tamil Research (IATR), the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America and Chicago Tamil Sangam.
Part of identity
The first copies were received by Sundar Kuppusamy, president of FeTNA; G.V. Selvam, vice-president, VIT; Su. Venkatesan, Lok Sabha MP; and industrialist Paul Pandian, Harvard Tamil chair, among others.
G. Viswanathan, founder and chancellor, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) and founder president of Thamizhiyakkam said the book would help parents give Tamil names to their children. “The name of an individual reflects his or her personality and is the deep-rooted essence of their character. Naming people in other languages would completely result in a situation where the individuals will lose their core identity,” he said.
The book was edited by S. Parthasarathy, founder of Valaithamizh and writer Pavala Shankari. Poet Ve. Pathumanar is the publishing editor.
