What's in a Name?
Would a rose by any other name smell just as sweet? Many parents in the U.S. don’t seem to think so. They can’t wait to get their kids into the working world. That’s right: the new trend in naming newborns is to go after the Corporate Name. Armani and Chevy topped the list of popular corporate names for babies. In 2000, twenty one babies were bestowed with the name L’Oreal. Some parents have even agreed to accept payments from large corporations in exchange for the naming rights of their babies.
While I’m sure most parents think long and hard before naming their child, the occasional naming mishap does occur. Looking back to my Tamil language classes in 3rd grade, there was a girl whose family had just relocated to the Bay Area from India. Her name was Anal --- which means heat/fire. In my eight year old innocence, I thought nothing peculiar of the name. Now, I am curious to see how her name held up for her through high school and college. I wonder if she was at least compelled to change the spelling.
My parents used to tell me stories of growing up in India where they would come across classmates with names like America, Doctor, or even Engineer. Maybe this need to name children after large corporations isn’t a new concept; it looks like parents have been incorporating their hopes and dreams into the names of their children for generations. Once grown, do all people named Doctor become M.D.s? What happens if Engineer wants to become a doctor? What about when Ms. America is in a beauty pageant to be Ms. India? L’Oreal ends up working for Revlon? And maybe little Chevy wants to drive a Toyota.
posted by MBA Cutie @ 9:56 AM
9 Comments:
heard of 'doctor' and 'engineer'. never heard of 'america'. and even 'doctor' and 'engineer' were last names (never first names) and could be traced back to the profession of one of the individual's forefathers. back in the day, in the smaller towns and villages in india, people were often addressed by their profession. this was not limited to 'engineer' or 'doctor'. you also had names like 'khandwalla' which roughly translates to 'one who sells sugar'. some of those people adopted these names as a matter of convenience while some took them to hide their so called "lower caste" based on the caste system prevalent at the time and to create a new identity.
There really were people with their given names doctor or engineer... no joke! I've met a few when I've gone back to South India.. maybe not so common in the north?
the last chapter of freakanomics gets into naming - have you read it? it's pretty interesting, and if i recall they conclude that a name doesn't make that much of a difference, or names sometimes led to unexpected outcomes. in one true story, parents named their kids "loser" and "winner" and loser wound up being a big success (possibly because of struggling against the implications of his name), while "winner" pretty much languished.
a name can also be very suggestive. whenever my mother reads my blog she asks, suggestively, "who's MBA Cutie?" as if only a genuinely cute person could have such a name. i was like, "i'll let you know on April 14th after NYC Bloggers event" :)
My friends that read my blog regularly ask who is MBA Jackass? ... maybe there is more to a name than you previously conjured.
Yup, you'll have to wait till then to see. Then you can report to the rest of the blogging community whether I am a Cutie or not... or as someone once said.. in the b-school world, girls that are B-'s usually can make themselves out to be A+'s due to lack of female presence. I ain't no B-... ;)
i thought last names like doctor, engineer, and daruwalla, were specific to the parsi community. i don't know of that many parsis in the south - i thought bombay was where the largest concentration was.
blr_girl
No, I meant these in reference to first names! Like the given name was "doctor" or "engineer".
"in the b-school world, girls that are B-'s usually can make themselves out to be A+'s due to lack of female presence. I ain't no B-... ;) "
This reminds me of my undergrad days ---- if a girl in the campus looks beautiful, then she must be a visitor :D
About names - yeah there is farooq engineer, who is a cricketer. And also some names which are famous in one country are funny names in the other country, like Lou/Loo, which is a short name for Louis .., means totally differnt in India - similar to the Anal name :)
Don't worry MBA cutie,
In all the top-15 schools, majority(99.99+%) girls are F-, so even if you are below average looking girl you will still be considered a Cutie in those schools.
That's the sad part of life.
Educated guy + Sucessful career = Gets a hot model girfriend or wife.
Educated girl + Successful career = Gets a looser "no fun" guy
i remember sth like this
" 99% girls in the world are beautiful..the rest are in my college" good old engg days :)
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