What's in a name??

Ever thought about your name? I wonder at times as to how important is my name for me. To what extent do I identify myself with it? Can I relate to it?

We grow old all through our life along with our respective names and during all these years, we start loving it. I ponder over the feeling of exclusivity that i get when some stranger calls my name. I have always loved it when my teachers used to address me by my name. I cherish the moment when I see my name on the list of selected candidates/winners for any competition/contest. I take pride in staring at my signatures.

How bad we feel if someone could not pronounce our names correctly. Some people are really sensitive about it, especially when they inherit the names of their respective grandparents/parents. Ever imagined about another name that may suit you better? I have tried doing it but have always failed to find a new name for myself. Same is the case with sir-name.

The concept of nickname is also quite interesting. It came into existence mainly for convenience sake, in case you have a name long enough or difficult enough to pronounce. But some people think of a nick name based on a habit/attribute and parents/grandparents find short & cute ones for the kids which remain constant even after the kids turn into adults. One of my friends has his nickname as "dabbu" or "babbu". More popular examples are lolo & bebo (Karisma & Kareena Kapoor).

They say that our names do impact our personality. (I wonder what would have been the impact on the personality of "Chiraunjilal" or "Haldiram"!!)

What would have happened if we weren't recognized by our names? I remember one instance with respect to our maid servant. My mother generally used to call her "Bai"(she thought it was the generic name for servants) as she didn't know her name. "Bai" didn't seem to have any problem with it for the first few days but then later when she could no more bear this (unintended) disrespect, she revolted and asked my mother to address her by her own name.

If there is so much about a name, then why does Shakespeare say, "What's in a name"? :)

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