What’s In A Name?

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

I don’t have a middle name. Sob! Sob!

But I do have a big name and an equally bigger surname. An oddity in this part of the country because it is usually misspelt and mispronounced.

The Bengali Tradition

Bengalis have a tradition of giving their offsprings uncommon and unpronounceable names. As soon as an infant lands from his/her mother’s womb in a Bengali household the grandparents make it a point to refer to the mythological tomes kept in the boiyer almaari or the quintessential book shelf. Not to chant shlokas to welcome the new born but to find the biggest name possible and better still the one which rhymes with the name (s) of the earlier born(s) [cousins included], howsoever,  unintelligible they be. But, my dearies, Bengalis will always find the reference to the context. You just have to ask them. I guess it is a foregone conclusion that the child, on growing up, will not leave the mother’s pallu ever. Hence, no chance of mispronunciation, mockery, millions of questions etc.

The Naming Ceremony And The Anathema

We have, like all Hindus, a naming ceremony 🎑. My paternal grandfather named both us sisters. My elder sister was called Jayashree which is the other name for Goddess Lakshmi or the Goddess of Wealth. All throughout her life, my  poor didi had to labour hard, alongside my brother-in-law, to meet the expenses of raising a family. Long time, she suffered from  financial insecurity proving how unsuitable her good name was.

Likewise, to rhyme with her name, I was named Geetashree which is more misleading. It is, ahem, another name of  Goddess Saraswati, the White Goddess of Knowledge. Incidentally, both Lakshmi and Saraswati are siblings and in constant fight with each other for the number one position. In keeping with the tradition, we siblings too fight like hell, just to prove who is right.

The Great Proclamation Of The Future

My buaji (father’s sister) recounted how I caught hold of money as a baby in my naming ceremony. So my name itself is anathema. In fact, I had to start earning before I could complete my education. For a long time I felt inferior because of lack of degrees and considered myself the black sheep of the family.

Interestingly, my sister is well educated and very knowledgeable. She caught hold of the pen 🖋️, you see, in the naming ceremony. That’s just a part of the ritual where the child is given a choice of things to clutch , like pen, money etc., to give an indication to his/her inclination and choice of profession in later life, which come to think of, is quite a far fetched proclamation that too at infancy.

The Pet Names With Reference To Context

Bengalis also have a fad for pet names. These are either a shortened version of the bigger name or a rhyming version of the older siblings’ names, again cousins included, or just simply weird like Patol which is the Bangla for Pointed Gourd. Just imagine!!

I am called Mithu at home, which is, thankfully a very common pet name. But it is unisexual. Even a boy can have the same pet name. Absurd!! 

In so far as rhyming goes, on my maternal side, all we cousins have rhyming pet names. It starts with Laali , Polly, Molly (my maternal cousins – daughters of my mother’s brothers), then Shelly ( my elder sister) and then Nelly – that’s me. In my mama bari, maternal uncles’ house, noone even remembers my other name – Mithu. I have always been called Nelly. As a child I was not happy 😊 with this name. But in my adult years I became quite proud of it  as it was so English !!! That’s my colonial DNA shrieking!!!!

The Nomenclature Fiasco

However, growing up far from my birth place I have always had problems with my name. In this part of the country the girls have short names in keeping with their social stature. They are treated as secondary citizens/members of the family – who have to be married off with a big dowry. That’s  my personal theory (I am entitled to one – read ahead to grasp) !! So, they cannot deal with big names like mine.

My office colleagues complained so often. It was incomprehensible to them. So as a true blue Bangaali I would open up my gyan ka pitara (the knowledge box) and tell them it’s weighty meaning which actually didn’t impress them the least. So my name got shortened to Geet, Geeta, Geetu, Shree etc. 

My original name is mispronounced because in Bengali a is pronounced as o. In the northern part of the land a becomes aa like aah! My Southern friends put an unnecessary h after t and pronounce it likewise – Geethashree!!

Even now, in OPD counters and doctor’s clinics, the assistants will write out on the Card/Prescription/Bills/Receipts – Geeta Shree. The Chatterjee goes missing ! I keep on repeating Chatterjee Chatterjee . They just ignore me. Many times I have to spell the name and surname to them. Once a counter boy asked me irritatedly, ” yeh bhi likhna hai?” ( Do I have to write that too) referring to my surname. So Shree forcibly becomes either my middle or surname.

A few of my colleagues in Office would ask me why I didn’t use the Bengali version of the surname – Chattopadhyay. The British eased it for us by renaming it as Chatterjee (Mukhopadhyay became Mukherjee and Bandyopadhyay became Bannerjee). Imagine if I had to use my full name 😜😜

To add more insult, if a North Indian comes to know my pet name, the immediate reaction will be ,”Oh! We  or such and such had a parrot named Mithu.”

Mithu is a sweet name – probably a cull-out from mishti  meaning sweets which the Bengalis are so famous and fond of. My paternal uncle used to call me Mithai which means sweetmeat.

So with a profusion of names, it’s a blessing that I do not have a middle name which may have added more to confusion.

I hope you are not bored with all that history, geography, etymology, ethnology etc.

If not, thank you for patiently reading through my loooong post

In case you are just browsing thanks for your footfall.

But if out of the blue you happen to enjoy the post do like, comment, share and subscribe.

Au Revoir