I have always wondered what a name describes about the one who holds it. Is it merely for the sake of nomenclature or there's more to it? On first thoughts, one may think that for all practical purposes, it's just a means of an initial level of distinguishability. On deeper thought, however, the word 'name' appears more profound. Had it not been indeed, names like 'Alpha2031' and 'Delta9029' (remember 'The Island') would be more common than 'Rahul' or 'Neha'!
Names hold a substantial amount of cultural information. Naming sons/daughters after Gods has been an age old tradition in India. Probably this tradition is primarily based on religious grounds where one seeks 'PuNya' by uttering God's name as often as possible. In some cases, a child is considered as a gift of God and hence he/she inherits the name from the Him (One of my friends is called 'Sai Prasad' ). The time and date of birth also has a role. I was born a day before MahaShivratri and hence the name which is one of the many names of Lord Shiva.
Some names somehow relate to the parents' perception of the newly born baby or metaphorically to what they want the kid to be in his life. 'Snehal', for example points to the perception of the child spreading love and happiness and 'Akshay' on the other hand reveals the parents' dream of their child being a winner! Others resemble the reflections of nature. 'Sameer' would make a good example for this.
I have not been exposed to the basis of western names but I guess most of the impressive ones probably come from the names of great people in the past (Now where did they get their names from in the first place!) 'Alexander', I feel is rather impressive! From a practical perspective, I feel western names are good since they are generally short :) (Or atleast the forms of names used are. 'Alex' is rather short, isn't it?)
Name transformation is another interesting aspect of the word. I would say this is rather common among friends. Sometimes its just for ease of use ('Siddharth' becomes 'Sid'!) and sometimes its just for the fun of it ('Nishant' becomes 'Nishti'. Well, I can't find a logic here!). Sometimes transforms can get rather wierd, but interesting. For example, who would imagine my name can be transformed to 'Kaddu'. However, I think that's really sweet :)
While writing this, I realised there are more dimensions to the word than I had imagined and now I think I should constrain the randomness of my thoughts on it :) This is my first blog and I don't even know why I chose this topic. But looks like blogging is going to be fun!
Names hold a substantial amount of cultural information. Naming sons/daughters after Gods has been an age old tradition in India. Probably this tradition is primarily based on religious grounds where one seeks 'PuNya' by uttering God's name as often as possible. In some cases, a child is considered as a gift of God and hence he/she inherits the name from the Him (One of my friends is called 'Sai Prasad' ). The time and date of birth also has a role. I was born a day before MahaShivratri and hence the name which is one of the many names of Lord Shiva.
Some names somehow relate to the parents' perception of the newly born baby or metaphorically to what they want the kid to be in his life. 'Snehal', for example points to the perception of the child spreading love and happiness and 'Akshay' on the other hand reveals the parents' dream of their child being a winner! Others resemble the reflections of nature. 'Sameer' would make a good example for this.
I have not been exposed to the basis of western names but I guess most of the impressive ones probably come from the names of great people in the past (Now where did they get their names from in the first place!) 'Alexander', I feel is rather impressive! From a practical perspective, I feel western names are good since they are generally short :) (Or atleast the forms of names used are. 'Alex' is rather short, isn't it?)
Name transformation is another interesting aspect of the word. I would say this is rather common among friends. Sometimes its just for ease of use ('Siddharth' becomes 'Sid'!) and sometimes its just for the fun of it ('Nishant' becomes 'Nishti'. Well, I can't find a logic here!). Sometimes transforms can get rather wierd, but interesting. For example, who would imagine my name can be transformed to 'Kaddu'. However, I think that's really sweet :)
While writing this, I realised there are more dimensions to the word than I had imagined and now I think I should constrain the randomness of my thoughts on it :) This is my first blog and I don't even know why I chose this topic. But looks like blogging is going to be fun!
