Have seen English pace
bowler Bob Willis bowl at Chepauk (he was one hit for 6 fours in an over by Sandip
Patil) …. a search on him would reveal the name as ‘Robert George Dylan Willis
MBE’ – initially could not identify the tall Bob with this long name…… then
understood that in England there are some common abbreviations - Jon (Jonathon), Rob (Robert), Will
(William), Mike (Michael), Dave (David), Tom (Thomas), Doug (Douglas), Chris
(Christoper), Alex (Alexander), Sue (Susan), Chris (Christine), Meg (Meghan),
Nance (Nancy) and some times Cindy (Cynthia), Becky (Rebecca), and some oddity
like - Bob (Robert), Bill (William), Jim
(James), Maggie (Margeret) ……………..
Names, Naming and more ….
Mankind’s desire know no limits…. You study to earn and become rich; you aspire
to get married ~ have kids – bring them up – save or keep wealth that would
last for few more generations and in between you keep re-revising your earlier
targets as ambitions [unbridled wishes] keep growing. When a child is born or
much earlier to that, parents start thinking of naming the child. The Naming ceremony is celebrated on different
days in different fashion ~ many have religious significance. In Hinduism, naming is considered sacred ~
called Namakaran, it is an elaborate festivity.
It is usually done on the 10th day. In Vaishnava tradition, naming is
mostly after the presiding deity of the famous temples……… thus you have so many
Balajis, Srinivasans, Parthasarathis, Narasimhans, Devarajans and after
Acharyars like Ramanujan……
Now with people’s
increasing faith in many faith, including Nameology, a particular alphabet is
chosen as considered to be lucky depending on the birth star, the month, and
more. For many, picking the right name
for the child is a daunting task. Some adopt fancy names, which the children
might find a tad difficult as they grow.. some students would claim that names
starting with alphabet ‘a’ places them in some disadvantage as their name would
be called first in many forums, tests by the teachers at school. The common
Indian names for Girls are : Sneha;
Aditi; Priyanka; Kavitha; Anjali …. And for boys Raj, Ram, Dhruv, Rakesh,
Aditya …. Now read elsewhere that there are babies named in more strange
fashions including naming after ‘cartoon characters’, famous sportspersons and
more… the hot flick ‘finding nemo’ has inspired some to name their child ‘Nemo’
~ some other bizaree male names include :
Sailor, Buzz-Bee, Zed and Blade.
Out-of-the-ordinary girls’ names included Tinkerbell, Buttercup and
Bliss. Now this post is not
exactly on ‘Naming’ but the opposite – that of ‘some banned names’ !!
Blaer - Earlier this year a 15-year-old
Icelandic girl won the right to keep her name, after overturning a ban. In
Icelandic it means "light breeze".
Recently, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry
made an announcement: Saudi parents could no longer name their child Sandi. Or,
for that matter, Basmala or Binyameen. In fact, according to English-language
newspaper Saudi Gazette, there are now
51 names "banned" by the Saudi state. The Civil Status Department
reportedly said that some of the names were banned because they were not in
line with "social traditions." Others were apparently banned because
of religious connotations or because of their foreign origin. However, Gulf
News,a newspaper based out of Dubai,
writes that not all of these names fit that pattern. Abdul Nasser, for example,
appears to have been chosen due to its links with Gamal Abdel Nasser, the
famous nationalist leader in Egypt.
Saudi
Arabia is far from the first place to ban
names. Last year New Zealand
shared a list of names with CNN that its government had refused to improve.
Among those names: "Lucifer," "4Real" and
"Majesty." In Sweden,
the names "Ikea," "Veranda" and
"Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116" (pronounced Albin) have
all been rejected under Sweden's
naming law. Now comes the news that
parents in Passau, Bavaria, are
banned from naming child 'Wikileaks'
A set of parents have been banned from
naming their son Wikileaks by a registry office, for fear that it could
endanger the child's welfare. Hajar Hamalaw, 28, from southern Germany, originally from Iraq, wanted to
name his newborn child after the online whistle-blowing platform because of his
admiration for the site. However, authorities in Passau, Bavaria
vetoed his choice of name, and have banned him from legally naming his son
after the site.
Mr Hamalaw said: "The registrar said
that this was not a first name. A spokesperson for the town of Passau said the decision by the registry
office was based on legal rulings. The rulings state a child’s name should not
be granted if it could endanger their welfare. Eventually, Hamalaw named his
son Dako on the birth certificate instead, according to the Passauer Neue
Presse.
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
