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Naming the Baby- South Indian Brahmin way
This is interesting!!
Naming has a special significance in Hinduism. They are usually named after a God and are a part of ritual for two reasons:
While naming with a God's name, there are also special adjectives added to help you concentrate on a specific attribute of that God. For instance, a guy could be named Pattabi Raman helping him to focus on the crowning of Lord Ram. Another person could be a Srinivasan, to help him focus on the prosperity aspect of Lord Vishnu. While in rest of India, Hindus have shifted out of this model to name their kids after natural elements (Pavan, Sheetal, etc) or characteristics, we have stuck to the God model.
Tamils like adjectives & epithets. For instance, while a north Indian might be just "Ram", a Tamil has to be a "Kodhanda" Raman, "Venkata" Raman, "Pattabi" Raman, "Sundar" Raman, Sita Raman...
Given that everyone knows that Lord Ram looked awesome, was crowned, had a big bow, married Sita, are not these adjectives moot and super-fluent? ;-) If we find such names as Vasan, we will immediately work hard to add bandages to make it atleast a little bigger, say SriniVasan.
What would have been 3 dudes: Siva, Ram, Krish in north India, we pack it all in one dude: Sivarama Krishnan. No God left unloved.
When we add our place name, we often make sure it is prefixed with the honorific "Thiru" and when Sankrit names are used, we often add the suffix "an". Like scope creep in a project, our names have "title" creep.
You cannot just be any Nath (leader), but has to be a "Viswa" nathan, "Jaga" nathan and what not. I'm happy enough to be a leader, why have "world leader" in my name? ;-) It is hard to find a traditional Tamil name without all the adjectives.
(Keeping God's name or one of Kuladeivam name, Grand Parents name was the practice in olden days)
In case of our beloved neighbors, Telugus, they add their native place name, house name, god names, neighbors gods names, great great grandfathers's name, etc. In fact, if you talk long enough they might add your name too. Unfortunately, for practical reasons such as passport, they are forced to curtail the name significantly within a couple of hundred characters. Such kind of shortening has seemingly left many gods such as Narasimha, Srinivasa and Venkata very unhappy.
Here is one of the town names:Venkata+Narasimha+Raju+Vari+Peta. Looks like somebody doesn't like being called just Raju Peta.
Source:Why are South Indian names often long? - Quora
This is interesting!!
Naming has a special significance in Hinduism. They are usually named after a God and are a part of ritual for two reasons:
- By calling the name, others get to think of the said god. For instance, if a father calls his son Ram a 100 many times a day for various reasons, he does the Rama japa (ritual chanting of a mantra) without doing an extra effort.
- By getting called by a God's name, the said person is more likely to think about that God and refor
While naming with a God's name, there are also special adjectives added to help you concentrate on a specific attribute of that God. For instance, a guy could be named Pattabi Raman helping him to focus on the crowning of Lord Ram. Another person could be a Srinivasan, to help him focus on the prosperity aspect of Lord Vishnu. While in rest of India, Hindus have shifted out of this model to name their kids after natural elements (Pavan, Sheetal, etc) or characteristics, we have stuck to the God model.
Tamils like adjectives & epithets. For instance, while a north Indian might be just "Ram", a Tamil has to be a "Kodhanda" Raman, "Venkata" Raman, "Pattabi" Raman, "Sundar" Raman, Sita Raman...
Given that everyone knows that Lord Ram looked awesome, was crowned, had a big bow, married Sita, are not these adjectives moot and super-fluent? ;-) If we find such names as Vasan, we will immediately work hard to add bandages to make it atleast a little bigger, say SriniVasan.
What would have been 3 dudes: Siva, Ram, Krish in north India, we pack it all in one dude: Sivarama Krishnan. No God left unloved.
When we add our place name, we often make sure it is prefixed with the honorific "Thiru" and when Sankrit names are used, we often add the suffix "an". Like scope creep in a project, our names have "title" creep.
You cannot just be any Nath (leader), but has to be a "Viswa" nathan, "Jaga" nathan and what not. I'm happy enough to be a leader, why have "world leader" in my name? ;-) It is hard to find a traditional Tamil name without all the adjectives.
(Keeping God's name or one of Kuladeivam name, Grand Parents name was the practice in olden days)
In case of our beloved neighbors, Telugus, they add their native place name, house name, god names, neighbors gods names, great great grandfathers's name, etc. In fact, if you talk long enough they might add your name too. Unfortunately, for practical reasons such as passport, they are forced to curtail the name significantly within a couple of hundred characters. Such kind of shortening has seemingly left many gods such as Narasimha, Srinivasa and Venkata very unhappy.
Here is one of the town names:Venkata+Narasimha+Raju+Vari+Peta. Looks like somebody doesn't like being called just Raju Peta.
Source:Why are South Indian names often long? - Quora
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