This heading reminds me of a story that we read in our childhood. The summery of the story is like this:-
A person was not satisfied with his name given by parents. Ultimately he went to a Mahatma to tell his grief. The Mahatma laughed and said "Go and find the best name of any person, I will rename you". He saw a person named "Nayansukh" (means-enjoying through eyes), but found that he is blind and hardly can move himself. Next he saw a person named "Sudarshan" (Means- handsome to look) but he was very ugly. He moved on and saw a dead body being taken for funeral followed by procession of mourners. He asked a person in the procession,"Who died?". Answer was,"A person named Amar has died". "Amar" means - one who will never die. He again asked,"How can Amar die". The person saw him from head to toe and rudely answered,"What is in a name?" He felt that the name of a person has no relation to his looks or virtues and knew that his search for best name is useless. He thanked the Mahatma and came back.
The people in rural India understand it. So they name children on common things like -Gendalal, Chhedilal, Gulabo, Phoolmati, Chameli, etc. The tribal people in Chotanagpur named children on the day they were born, like- Somra, Mangra, Budhwa, Etwari, etc.
But some people who are religious minded in Sanatana Hindu Dharma named their children on Gods. Like - Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Parvati,Sita, Radha, etc. The thinking was that when they will call their children by name they will earn "Punya" and if they will call them when breathing their last, it will give them "Moksha" the ultimate wish of a religious Hindu. This type of naming got popularity but after some time these names were common and parents of new generation changed them with synonyms of God's name like - Ramesh, Suresh, Mahesh, Dinesh, Maheshwari, Jaya, Haripriya, etc.
Then came a generation which wanted to name their children that was new and unheard but still were some Sanskrit word not in daily use. Like- Ananya, Aparajta, Anal, Soumya, Aniket, etc. Now naming a child is good mental work and to help such parents these days some sites on internet are suggesting names of children. I recall an interesting incident which I came to know through my friend. His relative's child was born in India and they named the child "Anal" which means fire in Sanskrit. After two years the child's parents had to shift to America. But this child when started going to school there all his classmates would tease him because 'Anal' has some vulgar meaning in English. To change the name of the boy his father had to come to India to make an affidavit.
As Indians have a tendency to copy English culture it was hard to resist too long the English names for Indian children. One can find names like - Rose, Tulip, Shiny, Sherlyn, etc.
One of the latest idea in naming a child is that both parents give half of their names to make a new word for naming. Obviously such new word has mostly no meaning. For example a couple in my neighbor has names, Namrata and Harish. They did this => Nam[rata + Har]ish = Namish. Since this name sounds like a male name while their baby was a girl so they named her "Namisha". I do not know whether it means something or not but a name does not require to have a meaning.
But some people who are religious minded in Sanatana Hindu Dharma named their children on Gods. Like - Rama, Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Durga, Parvati,Sita, Radha, etc. The thinking was that when they will call their children by name they will earn "Punya" and if they will call them when breathing their last, it will give them "Moksha" the ultimate wish of a religious Hindu. This type of naming got popularity but after some time these names were common and parents of new generation changed them with synonyms of God's name like - Ramesh, Suresh, Mahesh, Dinesh, Maheshwari, Jaya, Haripriya, etc.
Then came a generation which wanted to name their children that was new and unheard but still were some Sanskrit word not in daily use. Like- Ananya, Aparajta, Anal, Soumya, Aniket, etc. Now naming a child is good mental work and to help such parents these days some sites on internet are suggesting names of children. I recall an interesting incident which I came to know through my friend. His relative's child was born in India and they named the child "Anal" which means fire in Sanskrit. After two years the child's parents had to shift to America. But this child when started going to school there all his classmates would tease him because 'Anal' has some vulgar meaning in English. To change the name of the boy his father had to come to India to make an affidavit.
As Indians have a tendency to copy English culture it was hard to resist too long the English names for Indian children. One can find names like - Rose, Tulip, Shiny, Sherlyn, etc.
One of the latest idea in naming a child is that both parents give half of their names to make a new word for naming. Obviously such new word has mostly no meaning. For example a couple in my neighbor has names, Namrata and Harish. They did this => Nam[rata + Har]ish = Namish. Since this name sounds like a male name while their baby was a girl so they named her "Namisha". I do not know whether it means something or not but a name does not require to have a meaning.
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