WHAT'S IN A NAME?

 

Everyone has a name and everything has a name too. These names are given by us only. Human beings give a name to their children as soon as they are born or a few days afterwards. In fact, names are given to identify the person or things. Without a name, it is impossible to find out who is who and what is what? Therefore humans while evolving learned to name people and things.

The name of the male is distinctly different from that of a female. Before a child is born the parents choose some attractive and fashionable name for their son or daughter. It has become a custom all over the world. In olden days, mostly the name of the grandparents are given to the grandchildren in order to keep the family names alive. Even now in some families, such customs prevail. In fact, my name Narayanan is that of my grandfather. Many parents prefer to give their children the name of Gods and Goddesses. In India, for example, the names of Shiva, Vishnu, Vinayaka, Rama, Sita, Lakshmi, Saraswathi are commonly given. Naming a child is a family function celebrated with family members and friends at home or in a hotel. One thing my friend told me that almost all female names in India end either in “a” or “i” or “e”. It’s a good observation. Think over…

The recent trend is choosing a short name like Nila, Kala, Maha. Even if there is a very long name like Ramachandran, it is shortened as Ram or Ramu or Chandran for easy calling. But in a record, the original long name will be there. There are first, second and third names too. It’s common in Western Countries. In India also we do find such practice in some States. The first name is generally the name of the village where he or she is born, the second name will be the name of the father and the third would be the actual new name. It’s interesting to note that the mother’s name is not added as the second name. Generally, the first two names will be abbreviated as the initials only. In many cases, the last name indicates the caste as Rao, Reddy, Iyer, Pillai, etc. However, adding a caste name is slowly, very slowly vanishing nowadays.

 We know that everything in our world is named. Our ancestors fixed the name for things. The names are given in every language. One of the important things is that everyone remembers the names of millions of things around them. It’s surprising! How does our brain remember all these names? We identify things by their names. Everyone can call for a thing like a chair, table, pen, book, cup, water, etc. We learn all these names from our parents, teachers, friends, and others and use them repeatedly. I feel it is a wonderful ability that every human being possesses. Very rarely we forget the names of things, plants, animals, insects, etc. It’s an extraordinary capacity for humans to remember these names. Some of the specialized names are known to the specialists. A mechanic of an automobile knows the parts of a car or any other vehicle. Similarly, a doctor knows thousands of disease names and also the names of drugs.

Moreover, while talking to others we use many names that the other person also knows. Thus it becomes easier for communicating our thoughts. So the names are the key to knowing people or things in our world. Plants are named, places are named, streets are named, and cities are named. If you start writing the names you know in a notebook, it will run into millions of pages. I don’t think anyone has tried this exercise. If you don’t have anything to do, better start writing the names of whatever you know. It would be a wonderful exercise indeed! - NARA