Whats in a name, you ask?
Paolo and Jon point out how some names are more often mispelled than others. Well, I am one of those whose name is almost always mispelled, especially by Americans. It is a mystery that has confounded me since the first day I landed on the shores of that glorious country and continues to puzzle me today when most of my communication with my American friends and colleagues is via email. My name is spelled G-A-U-R-A-V. But for some reason, 9 out of 10 Amercians spell it as G-U-A-R-A-V (note that the u comes before a). I am not so finicky about names and spellings but this happens with such consistency that it never ceases to amaze me. In fact, if you search for "GUARAV" on Google, you get more than 16,000 hits Though you have to give credit to Google for helpfully asking "Did you mean: gaurav". And if I run a quick search on all the email in my Outlook for "guarav", I get 159 results. That many people have mispelled my name in just the last few months!
When somebody consistently spells it wrong, I have to very reluctantly correct them. You don't want to point out this kind of stuff because it makes the other person get really apologetic and of course they didn't do it purposely! Sometimes I get interesting explanations for why people do it. Like this one time I was told that "guava" is the word closest to how my name is spelled so people subconciously type the u before the a. That explanation is, shall we say, not very fruitful. But it might have some juice in it because Microsoft Word does tend to auto-correct my name to "guava".
Oh well, like Shakespeare said, what's in a name? That which we call Gaurav by any other word would still remain me!
One day I will tell you about how my name is pronounced in different parts of the world. Now that I am safely back in my own backyard, I can laugh about it. But it wasn't always so funny! :)
Comments
And therein lies the cultural divide between the Indians and Chinese. We wouldn't dream of adopting Anglo first names just to facilitate things for the westerners. The Chinese couldn't care less! Every Chinese that expects to have any interaction with the west already has an Anglo name. "Hey, if it is good for business, what's the harm?"
And that's why India has to be careful it doesn't get eclipsed by China even in those sectors where India has had the first mover advantage... like software.
Posted by: Sarat | February 21, 2006 01:26 AM
During my first 3 months of internship at Austria, people thought 'goyal' is my firsname and 'sunil' my family name. It was just at the very end of my internship, since I had to do a financial transaction, that everybody came to know about this fact.
If it would have been possible to include an audio file here, I could have pronounced your name in German and you could have laughed all night! :-)
Posted by: Sunil Goyal | February 21, 2006 06:12 PM
keerthi,kirthi,kriti,kirty. These are the different spellings of my name that I have seen people use, especially in the south they have a habit of putting a 'h' before everything.
Add to that the fact that everyone who hears my name without seeing me, thinks I am a gal and it's a major embarrasement to meet someone who's just heard of your name , and make it clear that you're not a gal(sometimes people get really dissappointed ).
So take a chill pill dude, there are people worse off than you.
Posted by: Kirti Dhingra | February 21, 2006 09:31 PM
Mine is easy to spell once you remember the pronounciation.. it's hard to pronouce. Reverse trend though. Americans find it easy to pronounce, Indians cant believe it's a real name, then they cant pronounce.
Barista guy: Can i take your name for the order
Me: Saad
Barista: Excuse me? Prasad? Saat?
Me: No, Ess Aay Aay Dee, Saad
(when order's ready)
Barista: CALL FOR SHAAD
Had a freind called Abhishek. His parents used to call his Abhi-saek, and me Shaad. Go figure.
Posted by: Saad Akhtar | February 21, 2006 11:12 PM
atleast they dont call u 'justin'
Posted by: Jatin | February 22, 2006 07:16 AM
There is something to the names. There is a book on "leadership" by Sandeep and Manisha Chaudhary which states that people tend to behave according to the meanings of their names. This is to do something with vibrarions which they learnt from some saint in the Himalayas.
Posted by: Hiren | February 22, 2006 04:51 PM
Well, I am glad to see I am not the only one perplexed by my name! Hiren, is that book for real? My name means "pride" so does that make me a proud person? :-)
Posted by: Gaurav | February 24, 2006 12:09 AM
Have you noticed how the Indians from Trinidad, Guyana, Mauritius and Fiji spell their Indian names? Very phonetically! Maybe that's because the spelling was concocted by semi-literate European immigration officers in the 19th century as these Indians, illiterate themselves, came off the boat.
Therefore, Laxman is phonetically written as Lutchman. Kumar is spelled Coomar, as in Seecoomar, the "See" a Bihar/UP village version of Shiv. Sunder is Soonder. Gopal is Gopaul, probably preventing one from pronouncing it Go-pal, as in "go friend."
I have never figured out how our ancestors went about establishing the "proper" spelling of Indian names. I mean, why Laxman? Who wouldn't pronounce it as Lacks Man?
Sarat Dayal (better spelled as Sharat). In the U.S., I am simply known as Sir-raat. When introduced to the natives here, I just give them the Sir-raat pronunciation, unless they are relatives or very close friends. Then I make sure they know my real name.
Posted by: Sarat | February 24, 2006 03:35 AM
It is real ,Gaurav. I have a copy of it.
Posted by: Hiren | February 26, 2006 07:23 PM
I have also observed that westerners always emphasise the incorrect syllable in Indian names. I guess this is just a difference between how Hindi and English pronounciations work. In US my name is usually pronounced as "Gauraaaav" :)
Hiren, thats amazing. A whole book on importance of names! I had a hard time just coming up with this blog post on names!
Posted by: Gaurav | February 26, 2006 11:13 PM