Why naming you is so much more complicated?

Alright, lets get real here. Your mom and dad have just two weeks after you are born to give you an official legal name that you would carry for life. Apart from the fact that they want to give you a unique name (nearly impossible task!) that kids would not make fun of in school, there is more of an approval process from the close family. And that process narrows down the names database that your parents have been compiling for many months now. I would say, just your mom. Your dad is too lazy to contribute and I think you should know it.

To begin, nobody knows if you are a boy or a girl child. That instantly makes the process twice as hard, and well, you are not even born! Secondly you believe it or not, there is good names and bad names. For example, my suggestion for a girl child, Urvashi , is a negative character in an the great Indian epic “Mahabharata”. Some other names that came up were screened out because they sounded too North Indian (trust me, I live in the North and my last name sounds funny to a lot of people here!), some define class sentiments, some were too common, and some other names are already out there in the closer friends and family circle. But I found this the funniest explanation for rejection – “the chosen name reminds me of a guy in middle school who was a loser. And so are most of the guys with that name”. So basically, they are looking for a name that can transcend religion, region, class, geographies. A local package for the global audience.

But, thats just the normal part of the name selection process. Your parents just made it harder for themselves by deciding to give you a surname that would be the same for all of you. Yeah, they are over 30 and plan to change their names for YOU (call it sacrifice or an opportunity!). I have been asked to change for strictly consistency reasons, and am still thinking about it. Now, selection of last name is again not an easy process. I will let your mom or dad guest post once to explain in detail. It is too much of an effort to even write about it really. And that too with your dad’s extreme decision making ability, you will be 7 years old before you even have a last name.  Good luck with that, for life.

I am not sure if I can reveal the names to you before you are born, so I will let you find out once you develop some brains to understand such things. Until then, trust me, you will have people calling you in different names and you will be one confused kid. I have 10 ways to call you already.

See you soon.

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