What is in a name? A lot. It reflects who you are. Your class, your status, your taste, even your profession, your religion, The modern day Indian parents can do any amount of labour to find a name for their new born.I have come across people who have thought of baby names when they were in their teens. "It was my dream to name my baby boy "Siddhant" when I was in my college", announced a friend who recently became a second time daddy to a chubby baby boy.
The upwardly mobile parents go for 'IT' names such as Tahira, Amaika, Ayera, Kiah, Kiara, Tiara, Miska...They would gladly tell you about its origin: Arabic, Lebanese, Russian, Egyptian or even sometimes Mayan! They will also enlighten you with it meaning. That it meant the first ray of the sun, that it meant the destroyer of the biggest evil and so on and so forth.
While in North India names such as Arjun, Karan, Ravi, are commonplace, in the eastern region like Odisha, Bengal, Assam, these kind of names are old fashioned and too short to make it to the elite list. You are most likely to find names such as Sanghamitra, Kavyatara, Amlan, Aharshkar, Punyaprava, Pradyumna, Arnab, Diganta, Chaitali, Kajori...They are never at a loss of words when it comes to naming their children. I know a friend who are seven sisters: Sarita, Bismita, Archita, Charchita, Asmita, Suchismita and Alipta. There is also a big trend to give twin names: Aparajit Arindam, Dhiradutta Punyashlok, Aparna Aparajita, Kamayani Katyayani, Soumyashree Soumyadhara, Sthitaprajna Siddhartha, Samjna Sankalpa and it goes on and on. Names like Sulochana, Padmaja, Bijayini, Bijayalaxmi have become old fashioned, forgotten. I was only amused when a friend in Delhi went in for Saudamini and Vasundhara for her beautiful daughters. At least in northern India these names sound fashionable and new.
You are definitely in Punjab when every other kid/middle aged/old aged man/woman is called a Lovely, Bubbly, Ritu, Minu, Bunty, Bunny..
While you are most likely to find a Shweta or a Mantu in every family/extended family in Bihar or Jharkhand, you will find a Bapi in every Bengali family. Odiyas have pet names like Bulu, Tulu, Kuni even Bapi. Names like Bhabesh, Jignesh, Rupesh, Kinjal are clearly Gujarati territory with rare exceptions. Also it's almost impossible to find a Chaitali Malhotra in Punjab and a Lovely Banerjee in Bengal. Every state has a typical liking towards nomenclature.
The royals take special pride in choosing names like Abhimanyu Pratap, Rajashree Vikram, Shourya Vikram. Kadamba Keshari.... In short the names need to have at least one word meaning "valor". Sikhs prefer unisex names. It's difficult to tell whether Harjeet is a man or a woman. They have names like Gurjeet, Manpreet, Gurpreet. My cousin who is officially named Harpreet (because he was supposedly Lord Shiva's blessing) is often confused as a Sardar minus a turban.
In North India(Punjab and Haryana especially) women do have manly names like Santosh, Sudesh, Ramesh Kumari. North Indians find it hard to pronounce Bengali names like Haimanti and mis pronounce it as Hemanti. They will make fun of the name behind back and giggle.
While names like Ashok, Nikhil, Ashwini, Sujata, Swati Pratibha can belong to any state with minor spelling alterations in south of India (Sujatha, Prathiba, Latha, Kruthika etc), names like Sushma, Bimla, Kamla have few takers.
The followers of Sai Baba name their kids Saikripa, Saisudha, Saisharan, Saikrishna as a gesture of gratitude to their spiritual provider.
Small towners or villagers who live near a town and watch a lot of Hindi serials go for names like Trisha, Neha, Suhana, Suhani, Ayushi, Rihana, Rumani, some even go for names like Reshma Rani. Sometimes parents give shocking names. Once I came across a chubby kid whose names was 'Vilen Sahu". I actually had to request his parents to change the name through an affidavit or the kid will have to face humiliation when he grows up. They changed his name to Jitesh.
There is also a section who go for English or English sounding names like Sophie, Steffi, Graffi, Aura, Simile, Little, Twinkle, Beauty, Sweety, Liza...
I have even come across names like BDO Sahu( I am unsure how he spells he name though), Officer Patra, Daktar Singh, Mishra Pradhan, Bhalentina Tereskova Sabar, Amrikka Ekka etc. Some even give strange names like Amul, Horlicks and am not exaggerating. Earlier it was almost necessary to suffix Chandra, Kumar, Ranjan or a Bihari, Lochan, Kumari with every possible name. Example: Prashant Kumar, Rakesh Ranjan, Vinod Vihari, Rashbihari, Rajiblochan, Indu Kumari, Yashoda Rani...
Parents of our parents' generation often had multiple kids yet never racked their brains about names. Today's parents go many miles to find a name. They will call you, flash a message asking all their friends on a social network to suggest names, do online research on dedicated websites on baby names, ask their Pundit/numerologist before zeroing in on one. Today naming a kid is quite a 'labour' indeed.
The upwardly mobile parents go for 'IT' names such as Tahira, Amaika, Ayera, Kiah, Kiara, Tiara, Miska...They would gladly tell you about its origin: Arabic, Lebanese, Russian, Egyptian or even sometimes Mayan! They will also enlighten you with it meaning. That it meant the first ray of the sun, that it meant the destroyer of the biggest evil and so on and so forth.
While in North India names such as Arjun, Karan, Ravi, are commonplace, in the eastern region like Odisha, Bengal, Assam, these kind of names are old fashioned and too short to make it to the elite list. You are most likely to find names such as Sanghamitra, Kavyatara, Amlan, Aharshkar, Punyaprava, Pradyumna, Arnab, Diganta, Chaitali, Kajori...They are never at a loss of words when it comes to naming their children. I know a friend who are seven sisters: Sarita, Bismita, Archita, Charchita, Asmita, Suchismita and Alipta. There is also a big trend to give twin names: Aparajit Arindam, Dhiradutta Punyashlok, Aparna Aparajita, Kamayani Katyayani, Soumyashree Soumyadhara, Sthitaprajna Siddhartha, Samjna Sankalpa and it goes on and on. Names like Sulochana, Padmaja, Bijayini, Bijayalaxmi have become old fashioned, forgotten. I was only amused when a friend in Delhi went in for Saudamini and Vasundhara for her beautiful daughters. At least in northern India these names sound fashionable and new.
You are definitely in Punjab when every other kid/middle aged/old aged man/woman is called a Lovely, Bubbly, Ritu, Minu, Bunty, Bunny..
While you are most likely to find a Shweta or a Mantu in every family/extended family in Bihar or Jharkhand, you will find a Bapi in every Bengali family. Odiyas have pet names like Bulu, Tulu, Kuni even Bapi. Names like Bhabesh, Jignesh, Rupesh, Kinjal are clearly Gujarati territory with rare exceptions. Also it's almost impossible to find a Chaitali Malhotra in Punjab and a Lovely Banerjee in Bengal. Every state has a typical liking towards nomenclature.
The royals take special pride in choosing names like Abhimanyu Pratap, Rajashree Vikram, Shourya Vikram. Kadamba Keshari.... In short the names need to have at least one word meaning "valor". Sikhs prefer unisex names. It's difficult to tell whether Harjeet is a man or a woman. They have names like Gurjeet, Manpreet, Gurpreet. My cousin who is officially named Harpreet (because he was supposedly Lord Shiva's blessing) is often confused as a Sardar minus a turban.
In North India(Punjab and Haryana especially) women do have manly names like Santosh, Sudesh, Ramesh Kumari. North Indians find it hard to pronounce Bengali names like Haimanti and mis pronounce it as Hemanti. They will make fun of the name behind back and giggle.
While names like Ashok, Nikhil, Ashwini, Sujata, Swati Pratibha can belong to any state with minor spelling alterations in south of India (Sujatha, Prathiba, Latha, Kruthika etc), names like Sushma, Bimla, Kamla have few takers.
The followers of Sai Baba name their kids Saikripa, Saisudha, Saisharan, Saikrishna as a gesture of gratitude to their spiritual provider.
Small towners or villagers who live near a town and watch a lot of Hindi serials go for names like Trisha, Neha, Suhana, Suhani, Ayushi, Rihana, Rumani, some even go for names like Reshma Rani. Sometimes parents give shocking names. Once I came across a chubby kid whose names was 'Vilen Sahu". I actually had to request his parents to change the name through an affidavit or the kid will have to face humiliation when he grows up. They changed his name to Jitesh.
There is also a section who go for English or English sounding names like Sophie, Steffi, Graffi, Aura, Simile, Little, Twinkle, Beauty, Sweety, Liza...
I have even come across names like BDO Sahu( I am unsure how he spells he name though), Officer Patra, Daktar Singh, Mishra Pradhan, Bhalentina Tereskova Sabar, Amrikka Ekka etc. Some even give strange names like Amul, Horlicks and am not exaggerating. Earlier it was almost necessary to suffix Chandra, Kumar, Ranjan or a Bihari, Lochan, Kumari with every possible name. Example: Prashant Kumar, Rakesh Ranjan, Vinod Vihari, Rashbihari, Rajiblochan, Indu Kumari, Yashoda Rani...
Parents of our parents' generation often had multiple kids yet never racked their brains about names. Today's parents go many miles to find a name. They will call you, flash a message asking all their friends on a social network to suggest names, do online research on dedicated websites on baby names, ask their Pundit/numerologist before zeroing in on one. Today naming a kid is quite a 'labour' indeed.
