Saturday, September 1, 2007
our last name
Here's a question for anyone to answer. I started my new semester at Talbot (it'll be light because I'll need time to adapt to being a father), and my theology class is taught by an Indian professor named Dr. Ashish Naidu. He asked me on Thursday what kind of name Ramji is. I admitted that I have no clue. Anyone know? Also, isn't there some story behind why we have Ramji as a last name? I thought there was something about Dad filling out the form Sankaran Ramji (with the Asian tradition being family name-given name) and thereafter having Ramji as a last name and Sankaran as a first name. But maybe I'm just dreaming.
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3 comments:
As I understand the story, Dad was named for his maternal grandfather (being the second son) Ramaswami, but since it would have been disrespectful to call her grandson and husband by the same name his grandmother called him Ramji. In south India your father's name comes first and your own name comes last which is why in the family everyone referred to him as Ramji instead of Ram or Sankaran (Sankaran was his dad's name). In the US, to make it easier on people, he called himself Ram Ramji but formally he was S. Ramji.
So does that mean his last name should have been Sankaran, so we should all have been Sankarans? What kind of name is Sankaran? I'm still looking to respond to my theology prof's question.
As to what kind of name is Sankaran, it's a very typical south Indian name, another name for Shiva. Ramji on the other hand is more typically a north Indian (often Gujurati) name. In the south it is often used as an endearment.
Now as to what we should ALL be, if we continued with the south Indian system, I would have been R. Nalini until I married Satish and then would have become K. Nalini Satish and Satish himself would have stayed K. Satish (his own dad's name being Kappagantula which he would have put before his name). You would be R. Ashwin and Charis would be R. Charis Ashwin!
Any votes for returning to this system?;)
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