Do you really know how was your name selected by your parents? In past several years, I have encountered very interesting ways in which folks name their child. Here is my collection:
- Sept 1978: This is about my colleague 'Pralaypati' and his friend 'Toofaan'. The year 1978 was a year of floods in India. Major parts of North and East India were very badly affected. In the month of September, West Bengal faced one of the biggest floods ever. The whole area was drowned in water. The most significant day of destruction was 21st September. It was this day when two people were born in a Ibidpur, a village in West Bengal. The names of these two were attributed to the prevailing conditions there. They were named Pralaypati (Master of Natural Calamity, Lord Shiva) and Toofaan (The storm).
- Jan 2005: We all know that Tsunami rocked Asian continent on 26th Dec, 2004. A couple in Nagercoil, South India on Jan 09, 2005 named their two-month-old son "Tsunami" after he survived the killer waves which lashed their beach side hamlet. In a similar tale of hope overcoming despair, a woman in Port Blair, capital of India's Andaman and Nicobar islands that were badly hit by the waves, also named her prematurely born boy Tsunami.
- Evergreen: Many people in Europe and America have a name which is pronounced as 'S-H-A-U-N'. I have seen following multiple ways to spell this: (1) Shawn (2) Shaun (3) Shone (4) Sean
- Dec 2014: I encountered one very long name - thanks to my team mamber Gaurav Mishra. Here is it: "panu ganti naga venkata satya bheemeshwara rama sharda sai kirna sharma"...
- April 2015: Jonty Rhodes named his daughter 'India Jeanne Rhodes'. The couple Rhodes-Melanie' decided to come to India and have the baby because they felt facilities here are much better than what they have in South Africa. Also they like the culture in India. They were very extremely happy. They like the country and how everything went here in India.
- July 2017: GST: In a bizarre instance, parents from Chhattisgarh have named their daughter 'GST' after the launch of India's biggest tax reform as she was born on July 1. The father of the girl child, Jagdish Prasad, said that the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Goods and Services Tax (GST) reform as a tax revolution on July 1, his daughter was born. So he could not hold his excitement and named her GST to make this day a memorable one.
- Jan 2018: Brian Lara names his daughter Sydney - after the place where he hit his first century.
- Sept 2018: A couple in sweden names their daughter after their favorite Mutual Fund 'MIRAE'. read here.
- Nov 2018: A baby was named ABCDE (pronounced as 'Ab-see-dee'), name came to the light when southwest airline gate agent made fun of the name, airline apologized later though. read here.
- Nov 2018: KFC awards ₹8 lakh (USD 11,000) to parents for naming baby (Colonel Harland Sander) after KFC Founder. read here
- Oct 2018: Mothers in Odisha, India rush to name newborn babies after cyclone 'Titli'. read here
- April 2019: In 2018, 109 babies were named 'Tesla' after a successful car brand. Isn't that cool? wanna read more, here it is.
- May 2019: A baby was named 'Fani' after the cyclone that made landfall when the baby was born. Its in Odisha, India. read here.
- May 2019: A muslim woman in UP, India named her baby 'Narendra Modi' after thrilling win in 2019 Lok Sabha elections in india. After family / public pressure, she renamed the baby to 'Mohd Modi'. The naming was significant since the muslims generally do not vote for Modi's party BJP. But, it seems that it is changing with time. read here
