What’s in a name?

Names have never been a subject of wonder for me; I don’t know why. But I never thought about them, even though my name should have been the very first name which can make me think about the naming of infants and the very thought process behind it. Yet I also think that was the reason I never thought about others’ names because my name was odd enough and I was busy explaining it’s not Newton, but Nutan- N, U, T, A, N…  My introduction always ended with the spelling of my name. So yes, I did not find names fascinating or try to know about the story behind names, well no I used to ask about the meaning of names, but slowly you start finding more names common so it almost ended my curiosity about them.

29^th of September I joined the JSWF fellowship and the activity we participated in again made me realize that it was interesting, my first memory about anything related to names was of I think class 6^th when our teacher asked us about the meaning of our names and I was so happy I new mine so there it started I started to ask the meaning of every single name. back to the activity we started sharing the story behind every person’s name like they are named this or that. After a week my elder sister gave birth to a boy and I had a very very big responsibility as his Masi to find a name. I did and now I understand how much effort we put into naming someone.

Now when I am writing this one more memory popped into my head we had a cow it was the biggest in the whole village it was named Gangu very common name for any cow then it gave birth it was her first baby in our home so we have to name her. Who came up with the name Sapna we named her later, and I realized it was an odd name for a cow because every other cow was named Kalu, Lalu, or an easily pronounced name (based on colors or some short nicknames), but Sapna was not odd for us because that baby we waited so eagerly that naming her Sapna was so meaningful for us.

Picture credit: Internet

Here’s one more once we found a kitten somewhere it was raining that day so we took her with us and bathed her and because it was raining that time so I named her ‘Rimjhim’. Rimjhim stayed with us only for 2 days and then she decided to move out and we did not find her after that.

And why suddenly do I want to write about this today because names once more have become a really interesting part of my life. I am a fellow placed in Sholtu, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh. Here I am working with a SHG group so I came across so many names that I can’t even pronounce well like Sukli, Kunga Zangmo, Naam Jal Zangmo, and the names of places I am still trying to remember and pronounce correctly. But one name surprised me after reading it I double-checked with everyone sitting around. It was ‘Priti Zinta’, and then I came across a new story one of our CSR team members wanted his name to be Sunil Gavaskar but the headmaster of his school told him that he could not use Gavaskar so he is named Sunil Kumar.

Many people are named like that it also made me think that we just like some people and we want people around us to be named after them hoping to see some of their qualities. We put so many thoughts, dreams, hopes, emotions, and expectations into one single name that it’s overwhelming if we think about it.

Picture credit: Internet

I know people who do not like their names saying it’s common not unique but the very emotion behind that name is unique to you or whoever named you. Maybe they did not share their reason with you or that very emotion with you but it has been through a very long thought process or the result of that instant happiness or whatever emotion they felt while they were naming you. My name is Nutan, which means ‘new’ I am named after the Bollywood actress Nutan, who was my father’s favorite actress. Now when I think names have always been a curious subject for me, and the question I am most curious about right now is

‘Whom do we name someone after?’