What's in a name? Part 2

To name a child is a hectic rather mind-blogging task for the parents, for it has got geo-political, socio-political or family custom or tradition, and at times depending on the parent's national pride or the lack of it plays a crucial role too.
One might ask how a politics can play a role in naming a child? It's not only geo-political or socio-political factor, but also internal-family politics from both parental or maternal hierarchy forms a major dimension to choosing a name for the child.
1) Inter-family political factor:
On one side, the husband or father of the child would want his own choice as to choose as per his wish, like if the child is a boy, he would name it after his paternal grandfather or his father and arrive at a direct import of name or a combination of their past name plus his own personal liking and he would go for a permutation combination of both.
If it's a girl child, so is the case, to choose from a permutation combination of his grandmother or mother or combination thereof.
On other side, the wife or mother of the child would equally want to prove her myth here to enforce her rights to liberty (after-all, we live in 20th or 21st century, women have equal rights) so she would propose a combination of her grandfather or father and/or grandmother or mother or a combination thereof be it boy or girl child, respectively, in that order.
I have observed in different geographies how such naming pattern works. Being more familiar from southern part of India, let me illustrate few examples.
In certain communities like Chettiyars and Nagarathaars, depending on the volume of children in the family and whether it is boys or girls as the case may be, the first child would be named after the paternal grandfather or grandmother; the second child would be named after the maternal grandfather or grandmother; if there are more than two children, the picking of naming extends to the parent's uncle or aunts in either side hierarchies.  Thus they ensure not to leave aside family tradition, at the same time, they somehow forgo if the child's parent have any choice on their own and that would have been totally disregarded in these community, at times. This is not to generalize the case here.
In some communities in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka or Kerala, the child would have two initials; besides the father's first name, the family's native town or village name would be part of the child's name.
In Kerala, many a times, the child's name or initials may not include the parent's name, but the name of the house or village or the town name could become a mandatory inclusion for the child.
2) Socio-political factor:(To be continued)

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

This question hangs around most of us when coming across various names we see with people, websites, blogs and wherever we interact with all sorts of people in the community, be it at school, college, university, workplace, public or private enterprise, to name a few.

The impending thoughts expressed here does not restrict to demographic boundaries viz. American, European, British, Mid-West or Mid-East Arabian, Center-West or Center-East, South Asian, South-East Asian or Far-East Asian, last but not the least Australasian geographies, sentiments or naming conventions.

When we want to name a person at time of his birth, we look for the concerned family's antecedents, both paternal and maternal sides to search for suitable names, leave alone the immediate couple-parents' personal wishes considered or not.

Naming a child, boy or girl - leaving aside trans-genders for the time being - is at times a hectic task for the child's parents. If they would like to name the child according to their own discretion, they are blamed by elders as if they take undue liberty and forgo their elderly hegemony, which otherwise the latter would have applied discreetly.

More so, religious sentiments, customary habits, family hierarchical antecedents, pertinent instances of popular perceptions, conformance to naming patterns pertaining to nameology as well as numerology,  above all, populist compulsions takes top most priority in one's decision-making; it doesn't end there for the child. Depending on what happens going forward in the child's life-span, that decision by the parents when naming the child, results in a bane or boon for the child.

Once it grows, over the years, age-no-bar, at some point in time during the child's school or college days, he or she might come across, and, would have to face all sorts of embarrassments and shortcomings;  the child faces enormous amount of frustration; at times this situation can result in unprecedented or unwarranted loss of life too. It's no exaggeration indeed.

Leave alone the foretold family naming convention or traditional socio-cultural, religious or customary compulsions, in certain geographies specially in Asian Continent, one has to consider the birth chart at time of the child's birth in terms of astrology, nameology or numerology as to what these methodologies dictate the proverbial naming process for the child, for,  the method or logic applied when naming the child for sure  impacts the futuristic life pattern of the growing child, in terms of health and safe well-being and these indirectly affects the child's academic pursuits. An efficient upbringing by the parents becomes the foremost ingredient and this thus formalizes the child's characteristics, psychological, physiological, spiritual and mental growth and well-being.

(To be concluded)