What's in a name!

The latest addition to the RH Road clan is Varsha, Kutti’s kid. She is also called Kaveri, which I think is a much better name. But do they really care about my views? Probably not. For example, for years, I wanted somebody, anybody's daughter to be named Mira. Only Papu took me up on it. (Thanks, Pops!) Now, that is probably a coincidence. Never mind.

But do you know why you got your name? Would you want to know who named you (or was most influential in your being called what you are?) Find out. I did. And not just for me but also my siblings. Here are the results of my conversations with amma (aka patti, Kamala patti, Madras amma, etc.) on 10 Aug 2008.

I quote:

Mohana: "Rajamani kuttipa’s wedding was just over and I had visited Thirumohoor, a village near Madurai, where his wedding had taken place. The reigning deity in the temple in that town was Kalamegham. His consort was Mohanavalli. Since Mohana was born soon after that trip, she was named accordingly. Anna’s father used to call her Ramona, a Russian name. He knew 8 languages to facilitate the import/export business he was in, and would learn them from gramophone records (this is the 1930s/1940s, folks). She was also his favorite, and about the only child he would play with."

Jaganath: “I just named him Jaganathan. He was then called Jaganath by others.”

Usha: “I used to fast on Sundays in honor of the God, Surya. His two consorts were Usha and
Chaya. Everyone rejected Chaya. So the name Usha remained. I don’t know what I would have named it if it was a boy.”

Premnath: “One name was Krishnaswami, since he was born in 1946, named after amma’s father who passed away two years earlier. Another name was Premnath, after one of the gods in the temples of the Mathura area.”

Gopinath: “One name was Parthasarathi, after the lord in Triplicane. Another was Rajamannar, another god in the Mathura area. A third was Gokul, but this was rejected by anna who suggested Gopi. So it became Gopinath.”

So, it appears that amma did it almost all by herself! And it appears that our names end in a ‘nath’ by sheer coincidence. Now, why am I not surprised about that?