What's in a Name?

Absurd ! In this age where name is considered the best and first gift of parents to their children asking such a question is ridiculous! Naming a baby has surely come of age. Gone are the days when children were named after their grandparents or respectable ancestors. Then came a stage where parents included their favourite God's name and after came a phase where parents added their ancestors' names and God's name as prefix which was to be shortened as V.B.S.S...etc to their choice of name. All these make sense to me. Naming your child with some logic and a meaning. And now comes a phase where "Naming" is considered a 'Fad', an attempt to show how differently parents can think and come up with a unique name. The craze to go in search of a different n unique name sometimes crosses all sensible limits to the extent of calling it ludicrous. But NO all these wont cut any ice with these parents. They leave no stone unturned to find a different sounding name and its absoultely OK if there is no rhyme or reason !

I have seen some of these searches ending at a very logical point but some have been utter flops. And what can sound unique to you may not actually be so. My friend named her son "Akshar". When I asked her why Akshar she said it was different. But when I told her that its not unique she admitted that four of her friends also named their sons with the same name. Alas ! She knew it after naming her son. Infact there was a phase wherein every other boy was named Akshar or Akshath or Akshit or Akshay. Add an "A" in the end and you get a girl's name. Another species who tried to sound different and unique went to all ridiculous horizons and came up with the name "Hasanthi". I must say they succeeded coz nobody would name their child Hasanthi. It means a "Fire Pot", in telugu "Kumpati" :O :O ! Disastrous choice I say ! One parent named their beautiful angel as "Swetha" but now that girl is far away from the meaning of her name. She is a dusky beauty :-). I was very fascinated with the name "Rishabh". When I shared the same with my "Operation Namakaranam" team (Yep! I had one who guided me to find an apt name) they rejected it outright. Rishabh, according to them, is an anglicised version of 'Vrshabh', meaning ox. Without even checking the veracity of their opinion I dropped it that second itself. I asked a girl who had a very beautiful name as to the background of that choice . She plainly told me that it was her grandmother who named her and she has no idea of the logic behind it...Pathetic...Grrrrrrr...!!

Well...yeah..I know what's on your mind now. I can already see your raised eye brows asking me how different I tried to be. I had learnt lessons from some of my friends' disasters and so when I started off had a clear idea of my criteria. My criteria was - 1) A sanskrit word 2) Not more than 2 to 3 letters (in telugu, I mean) 3) No too-old or too-posh sounding names pls 4) No Negativity 5) Should give an "Aaha nice" feel when we hear. If its a girl, it should definitely be one of those 'Amma vari names' from the Sahasranamam or Ashtothram. (Yep! I am very religious :-)) With this criteria, my team and me set out our journey ! Then began a series of discussions on some hundreds of names, their meanings, logics etc in some hundreds of gmail threads :D Oh, BTW, Phani was dead against at choosing the name before the baby was born. He feels he should see the baby, get inspired and name him/her accordingly.

One Friday before my delivery my mom suggested a name after her puja. She read it in her daily stothrams somewhere and was very impressed. I heard with a slight nod and said will consider. When our baby was born, I asked Phani if she has inspired him to choose a name and yes he came up with the same name which my mom said. Coincidence, I thought ! On one of those instances where I talk to my baby, I called out different names eagerly waiting to see to which name she responds. When I called out "that" name which my mom suggested before delivery and Phani after she was born, she instantly responded and screamed with joy. Done ! I took it as a happy acceptance and resolved to go ahead with 'that' name. {{If she has any complaints about her name in future, I shall show this as a proof :P}}

Today, June 21, 2010, amidst all her loved ones, our beautiful princess is named "MUGDHA", meaning a beautiful, young, innocent girl :-). Whether we chose an apt name or not, she grows up to her name or not is for us to wait and see...but as a parent I am pretty satisfied with our choice :)

Tons and tons of thanks to Kiran Anna, Sandeep and Mouli for all the help. Do check out Sandeep's excellent write-up on Namakaranam basics at Operation Namakaranam