What's in a name ...

They say History repeats itself. Today, names like 'Gowri' and 'Lakshmi' are catching up. A few years back, they were called apt names for cows and buffaloes. There's a 'Swarna Gowri' and a 'Honnarathi Gowri' amongst my relatives. Even mythological names and names pertaining to seasons & music ragas are sought after.

My parents did not name me from the starting letter of 'A', coz then I would have to face oral exams first (we are usually called in the alphabetical order). In fact, it helps me even today, coz my practical batch falls almost last, and I know what to expect. I wasn't too happy with my name initially though, but ever since I got a few compliments about it, my name suddenly became special to me.

I have got a friend, she is called 'Devyani', and she had two brothers, 'Karthikeya' and 'Pradhyumna', sounds more like people from the medieval age.

People have a bad habit, they cut down long and nice names into short ugly ones. Thats another thing you need to care about, there should be no possibility of cutting down the actual name.

One thing I discovered was the fact that its easier naming a baby girl, there are so many pretty names around, for the little guys, it needs a bit of research.

Some names are weird. Like there's a 'Pooja' almost in every street, 'Soumyas' are never silent, and perhaps the most amazing names I have heard is in our juniors' batch of M.Sc. There's a girl called 'Elektra' and her brother is called 'Atom'. Now thats shocking !!

In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, Juliet says (speaking about Romeo, because of the tension between their families),

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;

Shakespeare is revealing the boundaries of the term name here. He proposes that a rose would still be a rose; in other words, the name does not matter. However, at the same time he is showing us the importance of names, as for one thing - the names are what the plot is about.

Yeah...there's so much in name...a thing thats belongs to you...but mostly used by others...in my case...probably by the principal !!