What is in a name? A person’s name has a meaning like any word in the lexicon, and there is the science of onomastics that covers the subject extensively. Now more than ever before, considerable interest is evinced in naming or renaming persons, things, pets, buildings, public places, towns, districts and States, to mention a few.
Parents recognise that the name they select for their child matters much and that they get only one good shot to pick a good one. Film barons spend days selecting the title for their next production. Branding experts go through several steps before arriving at the perfect name for a product. Cine stars masquerade under glamorous pseudonyms.
Names which appear as anachronisms yield place to modern ones. In Tamil Nadu, the recent trend is to name children after celebrated characters in Tamil literature. Large-scale changes in titles of jobs have been taking place from time to time to uphold the dignity of labour — train guard recently changed to train manager.
Then there is the nickname by which a person allows people to call him. At home, Krishnaswami is Kichu, and among his colleagues, Robert is Bob. It permits an emotional connection and accessibility that the more formal version of the name blocks. However, some sobriquets that are used to cut someone down to size could be hurting or derisive. It is also customary that a person earns an appellation based on his native place or profession. It is well known that nicknames are commonly used in the U.S. to refer to political leaders, especially Presidents based on their styles of functioning.
Sometimes, one finds oneself in a mess since the ordering of the name, surname and father’s name is not followed uniformly by different organisations. For instance, the name on the Aaadhaar card often does not match with that on ration and PAN cards or the bank pass book, as a result of which one has to run from pillar to post reconciling the differences. There have been cases of students hitting rough weather when seeking admissions to overseas institutions as the order in which their names were written in the application forms did not match exactly with the same found in their original school certificates.
Names are a source of amusing faux paus as well. Once I went to attend a concert by a renowned musician. One of the persons at the main entrance hesitantly asked me if I was Mr. Rao. Even as I nodded in confirmation, he whisked me into the auditorium and told his junior colleague to guide me to a seat in the first row saying, “This is Mr. Rao, chairman of...” “No, I am Rao, the statistician.” However, not intending to make a scene, I occupied the reserved cushioned chair not meant for me for a while after which I quietly slipped out seeking a modest seat in one of the rear benches.
In Bali, I was surprised to hear the same names over and over again in hotels, restaurants, and shops. My confusion was cleared though not wholly, when my host explained that every Balinese child is named by his or her birth order. In other words, all first born will have the same name Wayan, the second born Maade and so on. Such a system is unimaginable in a populous country like ours. However, Digital India is assigning each citizen a unique identification number (UID). In the long run, we may have to be identified by the UID and not our names
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