Tuesday 16 April 2013

N = Name Saga


After zipping through the A to Z challenge almost over the half-mark, when N came across, I have to write about my name which incidentally starts with N.
No, in case if you have guessed something, it is not about how I got this name. My dad gave me this name as he liked it…no fancy story attached to it. However, as a kid I never liked my name. I still remember when I was in Class 6th; I gave my dad the option of changing my name to Neha or Nisha which was obviously turned down instantly!
I hated the fact that no one was able to pronounce my name correctly. Carrying a Bong name in northern belt of India is quite difficult.  I had heard so many versions of my name that it has ceased to amuse me now.  The most common assumption was that it would spell with a ‘V’ instead of ‘B’. Do you remember how Vidya Balan has to interrupt every time in the movie Kahaani when Bongs called her Bidya instead of Vidya…in my case it was vice-versa. Few inquisitive ones doubted my spelling capability and insisted that it has to be ‘Nivedita’ instead of ‘Nibedita’. I had to explain them that Bengali language has no sound like ‘V’ sound…it is either B or Bh.
In school, I heard so many variations of my name in terms of spelling & pronunciation from teachers & fellow students; it ranged from Nivedita, Nebidita, Nibidita, Nibodita, Nebudita and so on!! The college pals were smarter and they shortened it to ‘Nibz’. I felt so relaxed, it was definitely better than to hear twisted sound of your own name!
I can recall one incident, when I was in Class 12th and appearing for board exams. For viva-voce, we had to face external examiners. I was so terrified in my Physics practical exam. The examiner asked my name. When I told him, he asked its meaning might be to break the ice….I told him that it means ‘dedicated’…He asked immediately, ‘To whom’? I had no answer ready for it so I just said ‘to God’….and he gave me broad smile. The Viva went very well after that.
My office colleagues started with Nibedita but I was rechristened as ‘Nibbo’ or ‘Nibey’ soon. My bosses preferred to call me with last name only. However, while handling overseas client calls it was a mammoth task to tell my name to them and ninety percent of time I had to spell it with phonetic sounds. So, it would sound somewhat like:
I login into a conference call which is spread across various geographic locations of world.
Hi, this is Nibedita Bose from India, site ABC, Operations.
I am sorry, who is there from India??
This is Nibedita….N as in Nancy, I as in India, B as in Bravo, E as in Echo, D as in Delta, I as in India, T as is Tango and A as in Alpha…..and yeah the last name is B as in Bravo, O as in Oscar, S as in Sierra and E as in Echo……..Hmpffff!!! (I always ensured after this to check whether the person on other side was still alive or not!!!)
Another fact with my name is that, I had retained my maiden surname. But, there were many instances when people assumed my last name to be my hubby’s surname. When we applied for my daughter’s birth certificate it came with my name as ‘Nibedita Ghosh’ instead of ‘Bose’, when asked they said that they thought we have mistakenly filled up the form with different surname, so corrected it!!
Many of my office colleagues congratulated me through SmS, after my daughter’s birth. Few of the messages were like: Congrats, Mr. & Mrs. Bose! I didn’t know how to pass on those congratulations to nonexistent Mr. Bose though!
Till now, I have faced so many goof ups about my last name that now a day, I keep my marriage certificate handy for any kind of paperwork involved in Banks or any other offices.
When it was time to christen my daughter, we raked internet to search for a contemporary but easy to pronounce name….the only criteria my in- laws requested that if it can have somewhat related to God. After an extensive search and rejecting almost hundreds of names, we pinned it down to ‘Ishaani’, hoping that it is not easily twisted as my name was.
So, what is your Name’s story?
P.S: After my Teen years, I started liking my name and I love it absolutely now :)

26 comments:

  1. I can understand your 'pain', Nibedita :)
    I dont have any such name story except for some people calling me Shilpa Shetty or Shilpa Shirodkar! Weirdos :D
    But husband has a big name story. Kshitij is difficult to pronounce and when you see it in written form, you can not imagine the different versions of his name that we get to hear... Ka-Shitij, Khitij, Kay-Shitij and some simply call him SATISH! :|

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    1. Satish....I was LOLing all along :-)

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    2. @Shilpa : LMAO !
      Satish . thats all together a new naming ceremony. The most horrible way of murdering my name -AFSOON

      I never understood why do they want to call me so soon :(

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  2. First off, you have a lovely name - and yeah, it is a pain to have such a meaningful name mispronounced. Enjoyed your usual dose of humor. Nibz is such an awesome nickname BTW:_)

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  3. I know about Bong names and then the usual jokes about Bongs not having any V in their alphabets!! Pain, I tell you! Yes, Nibz is probably a nice compromise!

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  4. You have a pretty name and Nibz is such a cute nickname. Here in NZ I always have to spell my name and it is pronounced in a myriad of ways. (Suzy is of course a nickname I had in school but my real name is Ila). I love the name Ishaan so Ishaani is a very cool name!

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  5. Nibedita is such a pretty name ! My name is often miss-pronounced as Ruchika instead of Ruchira and I hate it when people do that !

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  6. I am grinning broadly now :) Got teased a lot about my name in my younger days :)

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  7. I am lolling loud on this post . I can so relate to it. I ended up with all these difficulties. Unfortunately many Bongs call me AFsaan
    I wanted to stab my self
    not only bongs many even here get confused . DONT KNOW WHY !I can strike a chord with ur post today Nivedita oops Nibedita Bose :P I faced all these challenges. . I SO WANT A "H" there. Shan feels good too . I thought mine was an easy name till it was twisted and turned. WORST is I am never thot a female over conf calls and mails , so on so forth. For long many people over blogs and bulletin board in my office thot I was a guy . SO I HAD TO PUT UP A PIC . Phew :D

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  8. Such a sweet account in your inimitable style. Some people are so daft, they always make it their business to teach you the correct spelling and pronunciation of your name. However, Nibz is a cute nickname indeed, and your daughter's name is very nice too. We had a Kshitij in office, and he went through every one of those distortions, except Satish, until finally people started calling him Horizon.

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  9. Your name is just lovely and your daughter's name lovelier :)

    I had umpteen stories with my name but that's because of my dad. My name is usually pronounced and commonly thought as 'Keerthana' and sometimes as 'Kirthana' but my daughter sought some numerology and merged both in 'Keirthana'. Everywhere I go, I have to struggle to make sure that my name is spelt right :) Anyway, I love my name and I feel unique with that spelling because otherwise my name would have been very common :)

    Until later,
    Keirthana :)

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    1. Sorry about the typo.. It is "my father sought some numerology and merged both in 'Keirthana'"

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  10. I have a name story. People can never spell my name correctly.
    When I chose names for my children, my only criterion was it should have nothing to do with any Gods. :)

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    1. I have the same problem with my name, people always confuse it with Nandini, I get so exasperated trying to explain, it's not even like they are foreigners and their tongues don't roll. Irritating people!

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  11. I some how love the bengali names... the b instead of v sounds a lot more sweeter to me... :)

    My name sigh... dhirubhai killed me... and my chances... even girls pick up that trail... sigh... Its a long long long sad story... *sniff* *sniff* *sob* :P :P

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  12. I can absolutely relate to the post word to word.

    My name is Preetilata and it's just a couple of years back i have started to flaunt my name.

    i too have asked my parents to change my name several times. In my primary school i remember i even have cried. :(

    But not anymore. :)And i love both yours as well as your daughter's name.

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  13. My story is worthy of a post by itself. Officially "Srilakshmi", which became She-Likes-Me in the US! And being a South Indian, we take the husband's name or father's name as surname. Since I did not change my name, my dad got congratulated by several people when the kids were born. To add to the confusion, my husband has his village name as his surname. AND both kids have my husband's name as their surname. Enough to convince US immigration that we are not from teh same family!

    * Now I am in the process of changing my name to my daak name, luckily a nice one.

    ** You would have been NiVeditHa in Chennai, think of that?!

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  14. I can soooooo identify with this name saga!!! same thing happens to me all the time. Hence we kept a really easy to pronounce name for our daughter...I also performed her name test on my foreign colleagues :) just to ensure that she doesn't have to go through the same torture....

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  15. It is a beautiful name. I too did not like my name at all..thought it was quite out dated...but, now I love it.

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  16. lol, my husband would swear he understands your pain. With a long south indian name and second name, he has the best times during immigration and security in the US! Never had a problem with mine. ANd many people think that that's why I never changed my surname! who knows, lol!

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  17. You have a beautiful name! thanks for sharing your story with us.

    www.m5carolin.blogspot.com

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  18. Poor you! Imagine being called Chlorine though! :P

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  19. I was am still called Surekha by so many people, it really bugs me. I correct them gently the first couple of times, then I tell them in plain words that I like my original name, Sulekha. love your name.

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  20. I can relate very well to this - I am Genevive Angela, and in school, girls used to tease me Geneva, at the bus pass counter they used to shout Janavi, i never use to like them calling me this way, in the offices that i worked, it was called genny, it was tolerable for me. My mother called me janet, some very close friends call me janu, jan i liked the name, but it is still not my official name, i got tired of the name confusion in my life, i found people struggling to pronounce my french name, so I chose to be called as G Angela - now i can hear still some calling me angelina, angel, angel. Now I tell people call me angela or janet, whichever sounds easier ! I can understand your plight, thanks for sharing...

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  21. We love your name too Nibedita :)

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