Opinion A household name?

Karnataka-born,now Bangalore-based author Usha K.R. grew up in northern and eastern India,always self-conscious about her name around friends whose names followed the regular “first name-last name” formula. When younger,she wearied of the tiresome questions about why the initials and what they stood for. Usha says she yearned to have a name that required no explanations.

These days,as she notes the trend of disappearing initials,Usha is glad she kept her original identity. “The first initial in my name denotes where I’m from,my birthplace,” she explains. “It keeps me rooted to my place and people.” Her other initial is an abbreviation of her father’s first name.

But names like Usha’s,or her film-researcher husband M.K. Raghavendra’s,could become rarities soon. These days,south Indian newspapers are full of notary-endorsed classified notices which announce the reworking of names to dispense with the initials. The names have acquired fashionable or convenient last names.

So,Ranjani M.L. will be known as Ranjani Kumar forthwith,says the newspaper notice. P.K. Jeevan announces that he has added a “Prasad” to his name after doing away with the initials. Rajanna S. says he will be hereafter known as Rajanna Anand. Ridding the name of initials and taking on a last name is nothing short of a sociological trend.

Tech blogger Prashanth H.N.,whose e-commerce start-up is in stealth mode,wishes his parents had stuck to the formula. “It would have been cool to be a Rao or a Shroff,” he says. In his name,the abbreviated initials are sometimes a prefix and other times a suffix. At his first job at a technology multinational,for want of a last name,Prashanth’s colleagues sent emails addressing him “Mr H.N.”.

Prashanth wants to go in for a name change “soon as I can come up with a good surname.” It would be efficient and uncomplicated,especially on official documents such as the passport,he says.

Dealing with long,single south Indian names could be confounding to a foreigner. “How do you address people with one name?” agonises Nete Sogaard Poulsen,a Danish national who has spent the last couple of years working in Bangalore. She plays safe with “sir” or “madam” and then,further into conversations,proceeds to ask them what they want to be called.

Many south Indian women who have only one name,have found a quicker solution — when they marry,they simply take on their husband’s first name as their last name. So,Murali and Ravi,Shashidhar and Anil have become their wives’ adopted last names.

The trend seems to reflect the homogenisation of naming practices around the world,says sociologist Amita Baviskar of the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi. Standardisation first emerged out of the government’s need for creating clear identities in a larger population,she says. “Additionally today,there are other institutions (banks,colleges,passport offices) whose standardised forms do not allow for culture difference.”

Many south Indians say they have had enough of dealing with the boxes in credit card applications and passport forms which mandate entering a first name and a last name. Database software simply does not accept null values for surnames.

Taking on a last name has saved many others the embarrassment of strangers being addressed by their father’s first name. Perforce,G. Kalyan officially became Guruswamy Kalyan when he expanded the initial for forms. He has tired of explaining how his name “officially” turned backwards and why they should call him Kalyan.

Meanwhile,Usha K.R. too has decided she has had enough of the mix-ups of not having a last name. Her son has a last name adapted from the name of the family’s native village. He will deal with fewer questions about his name,she hopes.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com