The more I think about renaming myself, the more I am convinced that I would face a loss than any gain. Yet, sometimes, when I feel that, if I had a different personality, and a different family altogether?!! Can the name change help or hinder??!!!
Loads of history go behind my official name, and I got this from my maternal side of the family. A lot of thoughts had gone into, especially for the name that was to be bestowed upon me. My Great Granduncle had given me the name.
My Appa made It the Official Name with My Maternal Periappa!
My mother’s elder sister’s husband (Periappa for me) advised my father to use the name provided by the Great Granduncle for my official name.
Of course, pet names were more popular among family members. My sister and I were like ‘Tweedledee and Tweedledum.’ So, a combo of our pet names became the way to address the duo all our life.
One without the other never existed. Anyways, the part where it was interesting to know is the rhyming of our names. Though pet names were rhymed for a reason only adults knew. It never occurred that our official names had significance too.
I am not unhappy with my present name. I am a little touched that there is family to it. I bear the name with pride, but occasionally the tiny part of me wishes for a new name and identity far away from all the known in my life. I feel guilty at times for this thought.
The Name I Desire: Yamini Suri!
Among many words in three Languages and plus due to association, I wonder if I could be Nandini from the character in Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan, or Yamini Suri, hmmm… nice roll. Smooth as strawberry pastry. Oh, my sweet tooth! Ouch!
If there were a choice in names?!! I want to be Yamini Suri in this life and the only child to carry an incongruous family name. South-Indian-Conservative-Iyer circle name their off springing from Sri Vishnushasranama (thousand names of Vishnu) or Sri Lalithashasranama (thousand names of Parvati). So, there is no other chance to self-name. But we are just imagining this whole exercise, right?!!! Moreover, parents of the 21st Century name their children with rare names from the Vishnu’s and Parvati’s names
Clouded View of Names and Expectation There From!
The interesting thing about names in Indian context would be the person imbibes the qualities attached to the name and countermanding expectation from the person to behave in certain fashion.
Since the Goddesses’ names are used for naming a girl child. As a grown child and an adult, the expectation are naturally built around it. New Parents-to-be often pick names based on their emotional attachment to the said name, which is then given to the newborn.
This no child can pick its name. But what if there were a law that when the child reaches a particular date in their growing years, they could rename themselves. It would be chaos all over. When the parents name their children it their hidden aspiration for the child.
Coded Message for the Child
The name is a coded message that the child must uncover in its lifetime. It is a lifetime of learning for the child. As my name suggests, I am Goddess Saraswati’s alter ego Srividya and the fact that I was named by an elder who practices ‘Srividya Opasagam’ or ‘worshipper of the Goddess Srividya.’
The culture of Srividya worshipping involves a lot of rules and regulations that are set in hard code. The principles in life held by this sect of praying people is filled with nuisances that are complex.
Followers of this cult are people ingrained with stoic resolve, and live a guileless existence. This detail adds value to the name and therefore to my identity with this name.
I might be a little idiotic to unfailingly follow traditions yet be wanting according to my elders. But I can’t help the fact that my roots give me, in this lifetime, an anchor.
To be an earthy and a grounded person who values it as a gift from my ancestors. I have tried all kinds of things in this life but changing my name would not be one of my tried things.
Yin and Yang of Our Parents
The Weight of my professional name bear greater prominence in Self-understanding and self-discovery. It is to search for the inner meaning of my assigned name.
Most often the Natal Chart decides the first letter of my name, it would be angling towards the time when the child is born.
Thinking of a name in advance is also guided by inner reference point of both the Yin and Yang of our parents’ energy.
Itinerant Storyteller 