The Binomial Nomenclature

Would it have been easier had we been a non - human being and been just an animal or a plant? One thing that might cause less worry if we were would have been the decision to name one's child! Well its not that complicated or anything like that - it is just that a whole lot people are to be satisfied with a name. Well er - Hmmm - probably satisfying people is complicated after all! After reconsidering and thinking more, complexity is rather an understatement. Well here is why it is.

There is this so called custom in some families where the grand kids name (atleast part of one of its name) has to be the name of the grand father / grand mother. In some families it has to be the traditional family name. It will be common for all the males of that family. And there are rules for the male child even when you name him and I don’t know if its fortunate or not, some of these rules are not so applicable for the female child - well a concept that may bring high blood pressure in feminists!

To add more to the naming options, there are Nameology, Numerology and so many ologies to tell you which letter should the name start with, how many charaters should the name contain, how many e’s and how many a’s. And then the combination of how the first and last name would look like is yet another matter to consider. Does the combination sound too weird or too good? Will my mom’s second cousin’s aunt who lives in Far East approve the name? Complexity – as I said is an understatement.

Ok - so what is in a name? It is something that belongs to me and I do not use it so often but every other person who knows me, uses it - eh! An irony - for something that I own, which neither I use it that often nor given a chance for me to choose. I wonder how many of us have had a discussion of why we were named like this and got the reason behind it! If I plan for a good name for my child (it better be good!) let me also put on my thinking caps as to why I decided to keep that name - After all my child should be happy with the name that I give him!

Well as a tail piece and now being the Harry Potter season, here is one info that might interest us. Before publishing the first Harry Potter series, the publishers requested Joanne Rowling to just use her initials rather than to reveal her first name - so that the target audience of young boys would not be hesitant to buy a book written by a female author! Well, so here we have J K Rowling - probably if you knew you could become a billionaire and your name played quite a role in it, there may be many of us who might reconsider a name change!

With More Thoughts...