At a work happy hour this past Friday, The Baby Vohra was one of many conversation topics (others included "doesn't being a lawyer suck?" and its many, many variants), and I found myself articulating for the first time a concern that I'm pretty sure has been with me for as long as I've considering having kids: the name (proposing that The Baby Vohra be called "Rich Rodriguez" does not count as a serious articulation of my concern over the child's name).
Now this seems like an obvious and almost mundane concern, because the name is undoubtedly the first decision parents make upon the birth of their child (if not earlier). But the name is especially important to me because I've spent my entire life having mine mispronounced (to my friends reading this and wondering, "have I mispronounced his name?" Yes. Yes you have). Even Neha's seemingly-simple name is not immune to error - my dad spent the first few years of our relationship constantly referring to her as "Nee-ha." And so we, as Indian-Americans, face the challenge of not only giving The Baby Vohra an Indian name that is both meaningful and awesome-sounding, but also one that isn't going to be butchered by The Baby Vohra's friends who have neither speak nor hear a lot of Hindi. That's a tall order. To add to the pressure, Neha wants a name that isn't going to be shortened or modified in any way. Which means that if The Baby Vohra is a boy, we can't give him one of my favorite names, "Siddharth" (totally inspiring meaning: white mustard, though also the Buddha's original name (Siddhartha)), because Neha doesn't want him to be called "Sid" (I think it would be awesome if he was called Sid, because it can't be mispronounced, and with a name like "Sid," he has to be cool).
Neha's crazy restrictions also preclude another boy's name I thought of which is totally awesome: "Jaan" (the Hindi word for "life"). I like this name for three reasons: 1) it's easily pronounceable (it sounds like "John"); 2) it's a name I haven't really hard before (wait - you're thinking "you just said it sounds like 'John.'" Well, yeah, but the name is "Jaan," not "John." Pay attention.); and 3) it would allow me to call him "Jack." For reasons I am utterly incapable of explaining, I'm a huge fan of the name Jack. And people named "John" are called Jack (for reasons I am also utterly incapable of explaining). So if The Baby Vohra was named "Jaan," Jack would be an appropriate nickname (wait - NOW you're thinking, "how could it be an appropriate nickname? You just said the name was "Jaan," not "John!" Well, yeah. But it's my blog, and it's my baby. Screw you.). But because Neha wants no changes of that kind, "Jaan" is out. To whomever steals the name for their own kid based upon these writings, you're welcome.
Now you understand the challenges we face. We've actually agreed upon names for both a boy and a girl Baby Vohra that I think are pretty sweet, but because we came up with them so long ago, Neha is starting to reconsider. I'm going to fight for the names we decided upon, but it could be a struggle. And because we've agreed that we won't tell anyone the names beforehand (lest we receive an unfavorable reaction), I will leave these hints for myself so that I don't forget them: hint for the boy's name here; hint for the girl's name here.
Feel free to guess based on the clues provided. Of course, I could be serious about Chocolate Rain and Pocohontas.
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2 comments:
Rekha Aunty used to say....just make sure other kids can pronounce the name easily. So take your short list, including the ones you have chosen, and have 3-5year olds say it.
That's good advice! Of course, in additional to confirming that 3-5 year olds can pronounce it, I need to make sure that I can pronounce it as well. Unfortunately, that's no sure thing.
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